[GameSpot] - Bungie Is Now Officially A PlayStation Studio

[343iBot]

Much like a bungee cord, the path of Bungie has seen many dramatic changes. The company, having been independent for the last 15 years, is now officially part of the PlayStation family.

The move, which was announced pending regulatory approval early this year and officially closed today, makes Bungie a first-party studio under Sony Interactive Entertainment. Back in January, the deal was valued at $3.6 billion, an enormous sum that came after Activision Blizzard--the former Destiny publisher--was acquired (pending regulatory approval) by Microsoft for an astronomical $68.7 billion.

Bungie has experience on both sides of the fence. For the last 15 years, the studio has operated as an independent company, but it was a Microsoft studio from 2000 until 2007. Microsoft reportedly only paid somewhere between $20 million and $40 million for Bungie back in 2000--it was before Halo's launch, with the company's games like Marathon and Myth both being relatively modest successes.

Now that Bungie is a PlayStation studio, we may see some increased focus on PS4 and PS5 in Destiny, but the studio is going to retain its multiplatform approach. Bungie will still be publishing its games independently, and Bungie said in the announcement earlier this year that the biggest change will be "an acceleration in hiring talent." Sony has been on something of a buying spree lately, more broadly, having purchased the PC port developer Nixxes Software, live-service game developer Haven Studios, and Returnal developer Housemarque, among others.

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