After Microsoft's recent purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft we said the exclusivity wars had begun and now another skirmish in that war appears to be settled.
Sony announced today that it will acquire Bungie, the developer responsible for the Destiny series and famously the original creator of Halo, in a $3.6 billion deal (via The Verge).
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In a blog post regarding the announcement, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons indicated that the company "will continue to independently publish and creatively develop our games." The announcement stresses that under Sony the company will be able to accelerate its hiring and speed development on Destiny 2 and "new worlds beyond."
Bungie is adamant that this is not going to mean that future games or Destiny 2 releases will be PlayStation exclusives. In the FAQs on the acquisition, the company states that it will remain cross-platform and that it in no way impacts its plans for forthcoming Destiny 2 content through The Final Shape in 2024.
Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, reiterated much of this message in a separate blog post. He indicated that while Bungie will be collaborating closely with PlayStation Studios, it isn't being absorbed by PlayStation and will continue to operate independently.
While it was a little cagey about exclusivity following the ZeniMax Media/Bethesda acquisition last year, Microsoft has made its plans pretty clear now. There may be an exclusive here or there, but building out Game Pass into a juggernaut is the end game for Microsoft's acquisitions.
Whether Sony needs its own Game Pass to compete is up for debate, but it does make the company's motivations with such an acquisition a bit murkier. It could simply be defensive, while Destiny 2 is far from Call Of Duty in terms of popularity, it's another franchise that could drive Game Pass subscriptions if Microsoft brought it in-house.
As all of these acquisitions tend to leave existing deals in place it is likely going to take 2-3 years for us to really start to see the ramifications of all these deals, but for now at least Destiny 2 fans don't need to worry regardless of which platform they prefer.
