PlayStation plans to buy more studios after Bungie acquisition
Sony is planning to bolster its PlayStation brand by acquiring more games studios, following the blockbuster acquisition of Destiny developer Bungie on Monday.
Speaking to GameIndustry.biz, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said the shopping spree was far from over, promising the company has “many more moves to make.”
The comments come in the context of a growing concentration of the ownership of the major gaming studios, with Bethesda and Activision joining the Microsoft ranks in recent times. Sony has been more modest in its acquisition strategy but still extremely active in the number of developers it is buying out.
It has snapped up Housemarque, the developer of the PlayStation-exclusive Returnal last June. The company also bought Nixxes to help it port PlayStation properties to PC as well as the Valkyrie Entertainment company that co-develops the God of War series with Sony. It also owns Firesprite, which made the Playroom experiences.
However, the $3.6 million purchase of Bungie that ironically created the Halo series for Xbox more than 20 years ago, represents its largest purchase to date. However, Ryan says Sony is far from done.
“We should absolutely expect more,” Ryan says. “We are by no means done. With PlayStation, we have a long way to go. I will personally be spending a lot of my time with Pete [CEO of Bungie] and the team at Bungie, helping make sure that everything beds down right and that autonomy means autonomy. But elsewhere in the organisation, we have many more moves to make.”
In the same interview, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons said the move was “nothing to do with industry consolidation.” He added: “This had everything to do with a shared vision and how we could do things better together.”
“Also, we do a significant amount of philanthropy. How can we continue to do good for those in need? And what is exciting for us is that Sony understood not just that desire and need to be independent, and to keep that lightning in a bottle, but that they believe in our vision and the way we’re focused on our vision. Those aren’t just words man. They really do.”