Why did Sony buy Bungie if it’s not making exclusive games?
You’ve probably seen the news now that Sony is acquiring Bungie for the princely sum of $3.2B. However, although we know the deal is in progress, we don’t really know why. Of all the studios you’d expect them to go for, someone like Square Enix, Capcom or, at a push, Ubisoft, seemed like far more likely candidates. If they were signing Bungie up to develop exclusive IP for PlayStation this deal would be more clear cut, but Bungie is reportedly retaining autonomy, creative independence and self-publishing rights, and current and even future releases will remain multi-platform.
So, why Bungie?
Well, what if it has nothing to do with gaming at all? As is now common knowledge, Sony is hard at work creating its own multi-tiered subscription service, with a facet of this expected to be some form of VoD content service. Sony, of course, owns its own movie studio, creating films like Ghostbusters, Venom, Spiderman, James Bond and other hugely popular franchises. With the success of The Witcher and Sony’s own Uncharted movie set to hit our screens on February 18th 2022, game to movie/TV show adaptations are becoming more and more popular. It seems likely that Sony Interactive Entertainment wants to use the Destiny brand to create movies or TV shows that explore the rich lore and sci-fi world-building established by Bungie.
Bungie has already revealed it is working on multiple movie and TV projects set within the Destiny Universe, with a job listing (credit: The Game Post) appearing on the Bungie website late last year (though it has since been removed, presumably filled):
“Reporting to the Destiny Universe Executive Creative Director, you’ll drive projects that extend the Destiny franchise into new categories including TV, films, books, comics and audio formats. As a storyteller and “guardian” of the Destiny IP, you will identify, select, guide, collaborate, and provide feedback to third parties and partners enabling them to tell additional myths in the Destiny universe that delight our fans while capturing the hearts and minds of new audiences.”
As we’ve seen with Netflix, Disney and Amazon, having your own high-quality home-brewed content is key to attracting users to your platform. Something like Destiny, created with production values akin to the Star Wars movies and TV shows, could carry major appeal. With this in mind, maybe the deal has very little to do with gaming after all.
If Sony is branching out into the video streaming world, it makes sense that it would capitalise on its established userbase of PlayStation fans and incorporate its services into a must-have package for PS owners, giving it a crucial foothold into the borderline over-saturated market. Packaging a robust streaming service alongside PS Plus and the revamped PS Now could be just the thing to respond to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which has already established the existence of a strong market for curated gaming services amongst console (and even PC) players.
In true Sony fashion, they’re staying tight-lipped on the whole affair, so we can only speculate. If things pan out the way we expect, and if Sony prices its new subscription services right, there could be yet another high-quality subscription service vying for your hard-earned cash.
What are your thoughts, should Sony have made Bungie create new IP for them, or are you excited at the prospect of Sony’s subscription services including movies and exclusive original content set in the Destiny universe?
