Yes definitely a defensive buy and they would be stupid to just let everyone else hoover up all the developers when PlayStation is a massive part of Sony. They have some gaps in there portfolio, FPS and western style RPG spring to mind.
Sony Game Studios Acquisitions [2022]
- Thread starter Silent_Buddha
- Start date
Yes definitely a defensive buy and they would be stupid to just let everyone else hoover up all the developers when PlayStation is a massive part of Sony. They have some gaps in there portfolio, FPS and western style RPG spring to mind.
Yay. Hopefully this'll be true of all these acquisitions on every side.
Is this a good deal? Based on Bungie's earnings, how long for them to pay off the price and become profitable?
To be fair, I thought of this too.I almost see this like nuclear deterrenceboth sides gathering third party exclusives to stop the other side from making the games platform exclusive
arandomguy
Veteran
There could be a semantics and technicality here. Not being on Xbox/Gamepass while being on Playstation + Nintendo or PC would still be multiplatform and not exclusive to the Playstation. However I do acknowledge some people will associate Xbox and PC has one psuedo platform, or least feel the Playstation is more distinct from the PC than the Xbox is.
Something worth pointing out is that Activision-Blizzard is a company with over 8b annual revenue, 2b net income, and 10b cash on hand (net 6b+ minus liabilities, but they have other fixed assets as well). Throwing aside the longer term synergy and IP valuation just the financials would command a considerably larger valuation than the Zenimax or Bungie deal. The latter two being private makes it tricky to get concrete details on but I'm seeing estimates of around 250m revenue for Bungie and 1.5b revenue for Zenimax (at the time of the deal, keep in mind considerable inflation since then as well for corporate assets).
Something worth pointing out is that Activision-Blizzard is a company with over 8b annual revenue, 2b net income, and 10b cash on hand (net 6b+ minus liabilities, but they have other fixed assets as well). Throwing aside the longer term synergy and IP valuation just the financials would command a considerably larger valuation than the Zenimax or Bungie deal. The latter two being private makes it tricky to get concrete details on but I'm seeing estimates of around 250m revenue for Bungie and 1.5b revenue for Zenimax (at the time of the deal, keep in mind considerable inflation since then as well for corporate assets).
Bungie is [was] a private company, we don't know how much they earn with Destiny.
But most likely they earn a lot, and Sony will hope their next IP will be as popular as Destiny (and provide a nice incentive for new players to play on PlayStation where there will be some exclusive bonuses for sure).
edit -
Ryan added he wants to grow the PlayStation community by expanding outside its traditional console market. We have seen this with several PlayStation games getting released on PC.
"I've been on record talking about increasing the size of the PlayStation community, and expanding beyond our historic console heartland. This can take many forms. And definitely one of the main ones is the ability for the wonderful games that we've been making over the past 25 years to be enjoyed in different places and played in different ways.
"We are starting to go multiplatform, you've seen that. We have an aggressive road map with live services. And the opportunity to work with, and particularly learn from, the brilliant and talented people from Bungie... that is going to considerably accelerate the journey we find ourselves on."
"Philosophically, this isn't about pulling things into the PlayStation world. This is about building huge and wonderful new worlds together."
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...journey-with-multiplatform-live-service-games
Translation: We also want to make money from players on other platforms.
I think Figboy (Associate Game Designer) comment over at Era sum's it up quite well about Sony acquiring Bungie, or any other game developer acquired by Sony or Microsoft.
"As I mentioned in another thread, Bungie is more than just Destiny, or a single IP. Bungie is one of the most talented developers in the industry. Yes, their claim to fame has been FPS games, but there was a time when Guerrilla Games was just known as "The Killzone guys," then they developed Horizon Zero Dawn, an incredibly well received open world third person action RPG. Just because a developer has made a name for itself in a particular genre, doesn't mean they're going to stay in that genre forever, or produce content in other genres they're passionate about (like Naughty Dog with Crash Bandicoot to Uncharted to The Last of Us, and Sucker Punch from Sly Cooper to inFAMOUS to Ghost of Tsushima). The point is that, developers are creators, and when given creative freedom and autonomy, they will pursue game concepts that they are passionate about. Currently, Bungie is passionate about the Sci Fi FPS genre. It may not always be that way.
On top of this, Sony didn't just acquire Destiny. They acquired Bungie, and their talent. You asked what Sony gets from this deal? Bungie has shown a knack for running a successful (key word "successful"), live service GaaS, a market that Sony is very, very interested in entering, but has thus far had trouble getting a foothold in that area that has bore fruit (at least bore fruit to the level they were expecting). Enter Bungie. As stated in their various PR surrounding this acquisition, Bungie's experience in that market will be invaluable to Sony's efforts across PlayStation Studios, not just Bungie alone. What's better than one very successful live service GaaS title? Multiple successful live service GaaS titles, spread across multiple platforms (more platforms means more opportunities to generate revenue).
As someone who has first hand experiencing working on live service GaaS titles (both successful and, uh, not so successful...), I can say that they are not easy to execute, and require a lot of work to be successful at. There is a ton of trial and error, screwing up and falling flat on your face, and then, ideally, learning from those fuckups, and working hard to course correct that project, or take that new knowledge into the next title and be better at it. Bungie's expertise in that field can now be shared across PlayStation Studios as a whole, and any live service titles they have in the pipeline, and could be incredibly useful in setting those titles up with the best chances for success. As always, there's no guarantee of success, but giving them the right guidance and know how, based off of real experience won't hurt.
They don't all have to be FPS titles either. The knowledge Bungie has about running a successful live service game can be applied and adapted to many genres and styles of live service games.
Sony also stands to gain profit from any potential concepts and ideas that spawn from their partnership from Bungie that appears across mediums. Sony is a multi-media corporation, after all. And I don't mean exclusively Destiny related projects, though that's one known quantity. Say Sony helps Bungie produce a Destiny film, television series, or anime? They will benefit from that and gain revenue. As a talented studio, Bungie is no doubt developing other, original IP outside of Destiny that could potentially become successful. If those new IPs also expand to other mediums like film and television, and are also successful endeavors, Sony gets the profit from those projects as well. There's no guarantee for success, but giving talented people the tools to do what they do best isn't necessarily a bad investment. Over the course of some years, Sony could absolutely recoup the $3 billion investment they've made into Bungie. I mean, look at the paydirt they hit with Insomniac. Spider-Man and Ratchet and Clank have already earned Sony a shit ton of money, and if Bungie continues to produce successful IPs, as well as Destiny continuing to generate revenue for them across PlayStation, PC, and Xbox, they're in good shape. Hell, the Witch Queen (i think that's what it's called? i don't follow Destiny much these days) expansion is probably going to do very well for Bungie/Sony, and that's releasing multiplatform in March. The next expansion will probably do well also, chipping away at that $3 billion dollars even more.
Whether future Bungie titles are PS5, PC, and Xbox multiplat, or PS5, PC multiplat, Sony is in a position to get even more of the lion's share of profit from those titles than they were before, now that they own Bungie, as opposed to whatever cut of the profits they were getting from software sales and DLC purchases. The terms of that deal have obviously changed.
And because this deal was so favorable to Bungie, there is little chance of hemorrhaging talent, which can happen during acquisitions, if studio talent feels that the work culture is going to be affected negatively by "new management." This means that the talented staff at Bungie will remain intact, and can focus on producing cool shit, whether it be more Destiny content, new IP content, or content meant exclusively as multi-media projects (a TV show or film not tied to a particular game per se, but an original concept developed solely for television or film). It's an investment in talent, not just Destiny and future DLC and spin off projects.
I will say as someone who knows jack shit about League of Legends, I fucking loved Arcane. It actually got me really interested in that world, even if I don't have any interest in playing those games (not a fan of MOBAs, but I am interested in that other LoL game, Ruined Kings, but I haven't picked it up yet). I say this because I think if Bungie and Sony do something like an animated series set in the Destiny universe, and it's as well executed as Arcane was, it could be very lucrative for them. It could birth spin off games in other genres that are appealing to those not sold on the FPS genre, but maybe liked what they saw in the tv show/films.
That's what I think Sony stands to gain from this investment, and I think it shows that they clearly have a lot of faith in what Bungie is capable of, and what they currently have in the works for the immediate short term, and long term (during any kind of acquisition negotiation, Bungie leadership would have had to outline, very specifically, what their plans for the coming years and beyond were. it would have been included in the packet they put together for potential buyers to peruse during talks).
This move was more than just "keeping Destiny on PlayStation," or a "panic buy" reaction to MS buying ATVI-Blizzard, and considering that we have literally no idea what Bungie showed potential buyers in their presentation packet, I think it's hard to really gauge whether $3 billion was too much or too little spent on the acquisition. Investing is always a risk, and since it ain't my $3 billion, I can't say I really care what Sony spent on it XD XD. Clearly, what they saw they deemed worth the investment, so all we can do is wait and see what comes of it."
"As I mentioned in another thread, Bungie is more than just Destiny, or a single IP. Bungie is one of the most talented developers in the industry. Yes, their claim to fame has been FPS games, but there was a time when Guerrilla Games was just known as "The Killzone guys," then they developed Horizon Zero Dawn, an incredibly well received open world third person action RPG. Just because a developer has made a name for itself in a particular genre, doesn't mean they're going to stay in that genre forever, or produce content in other genres they're passionate about (like Naughty Dog with Crash Bandicoot to Uncharted to The Last of Us, and Sucker Punch from Sly Cooper to inFAMOUS to Ghost of Tsushima). The point is that, developers are creators, and when given creative freedom and autonomy, they will pursue game concepts that they are passionate about. Currently, Bungie is passionate about the Sci Fi FPS genre. It may not always be that way.
On top of this, Sony didn't just acquire Destiny. They acquired Bungie, and their talent. You asked what Sony gets from this deal? Bungie has shown a knack for running a successful (key word "successful"), live service GaaS, a market that Sony is very, very interested in entering, but has thus far had trouble getting a foothold in that area that has bore fruit (at least bore fruit to the level they were expecting). Enter Bungie. As stated in their various PR surrounding this acquisition, Bungie's experience in that market will be invaluable to Sony's efforts across PlayStation Studios, not just Bungie alone. What's better than one very successful live service GaaS title? Multiple successful live service GaaS titles, spread across multiple platforms (more platforms means more opportunities to generate revenue).
As someone who has first hand experiencing working on live service GaaS titles (both successful and, uh, not so successful...), I can say that they are not easy to execute, and require a lot of work to be successful at. There is a ton of trial and error, screwing up and falling flat on your face, and then, ideally, learning from those fuckups, and working hard to course correct that project, or take that new knowledge into the next title and be better at it. Bungie's expertise in that field can now be shared across PlayStation Studios as a whole, and any live service titles they have in the pipeline, and could be incredibly useful in setting those titles up with the best chances for success. As always, there's no guarantee of success, but giving them the right guidance and know how, based off of real experience won't hurt.
They don't all have to be FPS titles either. The knowledge Bungie has about running a successful live service game can be applied and adapted to many genres and styles of live service games.
Sony also stands to gain profit from any potential concepts and ideas that spawn from their partnership from Bungie that appears across mediums. Sony is a multi-media corporation, after all. And I don't mean exclusively Destiny related projects, though that's one known quantity. Say Sony helps Bungie produce a Destiny film, television series, or anime? They will benefit from that and gain revenue. As a talented studio, Bungie is no doubt developing other, original IP outside of Destiny that could potentially become successful. If those new IPs also expand to other mediums like film and television, and are also successful endeavors, Sony gets the profit from those projects as well. There's no guarantee for success, but giving talented people the tools to do what they do best isn't necessarily a bad investment. Over the course of some years, Sony could absolutely recoup the $3 billion investment they've made into Bungie. I mean, look at the paydirt they hit with Insomniac. Spider-Man and Ratchet and Clank have already earned Sony a shit ton of money, and if Bungie continues to produce successful IPs, as well as Destiny continuing to generate revenue for them across PlayStation, PC, and Xbox, they're in good shape. Hell, the Witch Queen (i think that's what it's called? i don't follow Destiny much these days) expansion is probably going to do very well for Bungie/Sony, and that's releasing multiplatform in March. The next expansion will probably do well also, chipping away at that $3 billion dollars even more.
Whether future Bungie titles are PS5, PC, and Xbox multiplat, or PS5, PC multiplat, Sony is in a position to get even more of the lion's share of profit from those titles than they were before, now that they own Bungie, as opposed to whatever cut of the profits they were getting from software sales and DLC purchases. The terms of that deal have obviously changed.
And because this deal was so favorable to Bungie, there is little chance of hemorrhaging talent, which can happen during acquisitions, if studio talent feels that the work culture is going to be affected negatively by "new management." This means that the talented staff at Bungie will remain intact, and can focus on producing cool shit, whether it be more Destiny content, new IP content, or content meant exclusively as multi-media projects (a TV show or film not tied to a particular game per se, but an original concept developed solely for television or film). It's an investment in talent, not just Destiny and future DLC and spin off projects.
I will say as someone who knows jack shit about League of Legends, I fucking loved Arcane. It actually got me really interested in that world, even if I don't have any interest in playing those games (not a fan of MOBAs, but I am interested in that other LoL game, Ruined Kings, but I haven't picked it up yet). I say this because I think if Bungie and Sony do something like an animated series set in the Destiny universe, and it's as well executed as Arcane was, it could be very lucrative for them. It could birth spin off games in other genres that are appealing to those not sold on the FPS genre, but maybe liked what they saw in the tv show/films.
That's what I think Sony stands to gain from this investment, and I think it shows that they clearly have a lot of faith in what Bungie is capable of, and what they currently have in the works for the immediate short term, and long term (during any kind of acquisition negotiation, Bungie leadership would have had to outline, very specifically, what their plans for the coming years and beyond were. it would have been included in the packet they put together for potential buyers to peruse during talks).
This move was more than just "keeping Destiny on PlayStation," or a "panic buy" reaction to MS buying ATVI-Blizzard, and considering that we have literally no idea what Bungie showed potential buyers in their presentation packet, I think it's hard to really gauge whether $3 billion was too much or too little spent on the acquisition. Investing is always a risk, and since it ain't my $3 billion, I can't say I really care what Sony spent on it XD XD. Clearly, what they saw they deemed worth the investment, so all we can do is wait and see what comes of it."
ChuckeRearmed
Regular
Guess making single player games is not sustainable anymore.
Bungie developping Knack 3 For Sony confirmed.
Bungie wants to get into transmedia, where Sony's other divisions can help them get into animated movies or series or even live action movies or series.
I'd watch a good Destiny TV show, the lore is quite interesting. I think. Just don't make me play it or I'll get hooked again and that would be bad.
Billy Idol
Legend
In my opinion the best thing that can happen because of this deal is that Bungie stops being such a shady developer.
That made me chuckleYes, as long as they don't go removing episodes from the series to make room for new episodes, they may have an actual compelling story for newcomers...
Isn't pokemon from the Pokemon Company which is Nitnendo , Game Freak and Creatures ?
If you take a look at the top biggest franchises you have Mario which includes anything mario related with sales of 767m , then Tetris which is at 495m including mobile paid downloads. Then COD at 400M , then just Super Mario titles at 388.92m and then Pokemon at 388.92m (gta htis at 355m just under that)
List of best-selling video game franchises - Wikipedia
Considering there isn't anything else close with the next nintendo properties at less than half that with mario kart at 158m and zelda at 124m.
That list kinda puts into perspective of how good of a deal MS got on Minecraft. Its at 238m right under Fifa which first started releases almost 20 years earlier which is behind gta and pokemon.
I kinda surprised that all games with star wars in it is only 120m
I almost see this like nuclear deterrence
I don't think Destiny is big enough of a ip or game to stop MS from restricting its own purchased ip. I also have a feeling when they say this stuff will be multiplatorm it will ultimately end up just being Sony platforms and steam like MS is just xbox and steam
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