A division of Sony Group Corp. agreed to buy 100% of the shares of Bungie Inc., an independent video game developer, for $3.6 billion, Sony announcement Monday (January 31).
Bungie, based in Washington state, has been a collaborator with Sony for many years and has developed some of the video game industry’s most popular franchises, including Halo and Destiny, Sony said.
The acquisition gives PlayStation maker Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC access to Bungie’s approach to live gaming services and technology. The deal aims to continue Sony’s mission to reach billions of gamers. Bungie will continue to operate as an independent company with the ability to launch new games and reach gamers everywhere, Sony added.
Bungie, which has more than 900 employees, is focused on the long-term development of Destiny 2, the free-to-play online multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie. It was originally released as a paid game in 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows platforms.
“This is an important step in our strategy to expand PlayStation’s reach to a much wider audience,” said jim ryanchairman and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, in a statement.
The deal comes two weeks after Microsoft Corp. announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard, the American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California.
Read more: Microsoft’s $70 billion bid for Video Game Maker could test market definitions
Under terms of the agreement, Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard for $95.00 per share, in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion. The transaction is expected to accelerate the growth of Microsoft’s gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and provide building blocks for the Metaverse.
Video games are a multi-billion dollar business. In 2020, global PC gaming market revenue was estimated at nearly $37 billion in the United States, and the mobile gaming market generated an estimated revenue of over $77 billion, according to Statista.
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