Will Sony’s Stunning Acquisition of Bungie Change the Destiny of the Widely Popular Halo Franchise?

Published 02/01/2022, 9:21 AM EST

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In a stunning reveal on Monday, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced, as reported by Charlie Intel, that they’d be acquiring Bungie for a whopping $3.6 billion! Bungie is the creator of the original Halo, the game that helped facilitate the success of Xbox back in its heyday. More recently, Bungie developed the action MMO Destiny.

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Although Sony and Bungie have a long history of working together on exclusive Destiny content for PlayStation, this acquisition has still come out of left field for many. Fans and skeptics alike are left bewildered about what this means for the future of the studio. Is Destiny about to become a PlayStation exclusive? Would Bungie stop developing cross-platform titles?

And is Halo going to be okay?

What does the Sony acquisition of Bungie mean for Halo?

Soon after the announcement of the acquisition, Twitter was flooded with fans lamenting the loss of the popular Halo franchise to Sony. It is ironic that the titular Xbox title could be scooped up by PlayStation, its direct rival. Many started comparing the recent Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal with the PlayStation-Bungie acquisition.

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@timthetatman put out a tweet on the topic, and the comment section was nothing short of wild.

If the cat’s not out of the bag yet, Bungie does not own the rights. But it seems many innocent fans might be unaware of that. Microsoft did previously own the studio as they acquired it back in 2000.

But the studio split from the Microsoft umbrella in 2007 and has not produced a single Halo title since 2011. Then who’s been producing the Halo games since? 343 Industries is who. They took over development duties from Bungie, and Halo has been exclusively worked on by the Xbox games studio since. In fact, even the latest iteration of the franchise ‘Halo Infinite’ is the team’s handiwork.

Twitter pokes fun at new acquisition

Some fans had some fun on Twitter with regard to Halo and Sony’s newest acquisition.

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Who’s going to tell them they’re wrong about Bungie again?

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According to statements by Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Bungie will retain its independence and autonomy in self-publishing its titles. Additionally, Destiny will remain cross-platform as they want to retain the community the game has built.

Ultimately, Sony’s acquisition of Bungie doesn’t threaten Halo’s future. And Xbox fans can continue to enjoy their favorite franchise on team green’s platform.

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Written by:

Milind Sharma

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Milind Sharma is an eSports writer at EssentiallySports. A graduate by education, he possesses a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi. An avid gamer from a very young age, he loves open-world RPGs like 'The Witcher' and 'Dying Light'.
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