Sony, the world’s largest video game company, is to acquire US game developer Bungie for $3.6bn.

This comes less than two weeks after Microsoft made the biggest gaming acquisition in history, snapping up Activision Blizzard for almost $70bn and becoming the world’s third largest video game company.

Bungie, a big name in the gaming industry with titles such as Halo and Destiny under its belt, will join the Sony PlayStation family of studios but remain independent and multi-platform.

“Bungie’s world-class expertise in multi-platform development and live game services will help us deliver on our vision of expanding PlayStation to hundreds of millions of gamers,” said Jim Ryan, president and chief executive of Sony Interactive Entertainment, in a statement.

PlayStation head Hermen Hulst said that he was “absolutely thrilled” to welcome a new member to the family of studios and that he’s been “a fan of Bungie for many years”.

“I have admired and enjoyed the games that they create – and have great respect for their skill in building worlds that gamers want to explore again and again. Bungie makes games with outstanding technology that are enormously fun to play,” he said.

Based in Bellevue, Washington, Bungie was established in 1981 and was owned by Microsoft between 2000 and 2007. During this time, Halo became one of the most popular games on the Xbox, selling in the millions and starting the Halo franchise.

Interestingly, it soon after signed a 10-year publishing deal with Activision, during which time Destiny and Destiny 2 were released – two massively popular and successful games.

‘We must bet big on our vision’

Pete Parsons, chief executive of Bungie, said Sony as a partner “unconditionally supports us in all we are” and wants to “accelerate our vision to create generation-spanning entertainment” while preserving the creative independence “that beats in Bungie’s heart”.

Bungie has limitless potential to unite friends around the world.

We have found a partner in PlayStation that shares our dream and is committed to accelerating our creative vision of building generation-spanning entertainment.

Our journey begins today.https://t.co/PLuVn48zdy pic.twitter.com/kAhRbAg3vD

— Bungie (@Bungie) January 31, 2022

“We believe games have limitless potential, and that to do anything worthwhile in entertainment, we must bet big on our vision, on our studio, and on our incredible team of trusted creators who build unforgettable worlds that truly matter to people,” he said in a statement.

Parsons said that after the acquisition, accelerating hiring talent will be top of the agenda for Bungie. New roles will be announced across the studio to “put a dent in the universe” by helping develop Destiny 2 and “all new worlds beyond”.

“This is a prudent move by Sony Interactive Entertainment to bring more developers with a proven record of delivering popular titles under the PlayStation banner,” said Will McKeon-White, an analyst at Forrester.

Sony’s acquisition of Bungie, which was first announced yesterday (31 January) made January a record month for gaming mergers and acquisitions. Apart from Microsoft buying out Activision, another big deal was Grand Theft Auto creator Take-Two acquiring Zynga for $12.7bn.

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