Sony's $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie, the former developer of Halo, accelerates consolidation in the game industry

Reporter | Peng Xin

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Competition for content by large game companies has intensified, and mergers and acquisitions have occurred frequently. On January 31, US time, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a game subsidiary of Sony Corporation, announced the acquisition of game developer Bungie for $3.6 billion, Bungie will become an independent subsidiary of SIE, and in the future, Bungie will choose whether to release multi-platform games.

Headquartered in Washington State, Bungie employs more than 900 people. Founded in 1991, acquired by Microsoft in 2000, and launched the first game of Halo in 2001, Halo is still the most important game brand of Microsoft Xbox. In 2007, Bungie broke away from Microsoft, signed a 10-year release contract with Activision Blizzard in 2010, launched the shooter game Destiny series, and broke up with Activision Blizzard in 2019.

Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman, President and CEO of Sony Group, said: "Bungie has created and maintained a number of globally popular video game series, bringing together millions of people around the world by combining their values with the vision of people sharing the gaming experience. ”

Jim Ryan, President and CEO of SIE, said, "We have a strong partnership with Bungie since the launch of the Destiny series, and I am very excited that they have officially joined the PlayStation family. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Jim Ryan said Bungie's strength lies in making large cross-platform service games, which Sony is eager to learn.

Bungie sees the deal as the beginning of a new era for the company, which will extend beyond gaming to include multimedia entertainment content around the world. According to CEO Pete Parsons' official blog, Bungie will continue to operate as an independent multi-platform studio and publisher: "We will continue to publish independently, creatively develop our games, and continue to promote a unified Bungie community." Our work will continue to be where the community is, no matter what platform they choose. Pete Parsons said that he mentioned in the interview that Sony will accelerate Bungie's development plan and open up prospects for its IP application to film and television entertainment.

It is worth mentioning that in 2018, NetEase announced that it would invest $100 million in Bungie to obtain a minority stake in Bungie, and Bungie would create a new game IP to NetEase.

The deal is seen as another acquisition driven by a major gaming giant in the midst of a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the industry. Since January, large-scale mergers and acquisitions in the game industry have been born one after another. On January 18, Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, an American game company, for $68.7 billion in cash. On Jan. 10, Take-Two, maker of the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series of games, said it would acquire mobile game maker Zynga for $12.7 billion.

Wang Weiwei, general manager of game outsourcing giant Virtuos Shanghai, told Interface News in an exclusive interview that the speed of mergers and acquisitions in the entire industry is getting faster and faster, but those who have excellent performance in production capabilities, or whose management team has industry experience, are easy to become acquisition targets of large manufacturers.

According to industry tracker Newzoo, global consumer spending on gaming software rose 1.4 percent last year to about $180.3 billion. Newzoo also said that global spending on gaming increased by about 23% in the previous year in 2020 as social distancing restrictions under covid-19 have shifted people to online entertainment.