Today, PlayStation stunned the video game industry by announcing its intent to purchase Bungie for $3.6 billion dollars. It’s a pretty hefty sum, and it shows that PlayStation is making big plans for the future. However, it seems that the purchase won’t be the end of it. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan confirmed that the company is not finished bringing new companies under the PlayStation umbrella. Unfortunately, Ryan did not offer any hints at what’s to come, or how these acquisitions will fit into PlayStation’s overall plans.
“We are by no means done,” said Ryan. “With PlayStation, we have a long way to go. Iwill personally be spending a lot of my time with Pete [Parsons] and the team atBungie, helping make sure that everything beds down right and thatautonomy means autonomy. But elsewhere in the organisation, we have manymore moves to make.”
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Earlier today, Ryan revealed that Bungie was not purchased by Sony with the intent of making exclusive games, and Destiny 2 and other Bungie titles will continue to be offered on multiple platforms. The purpose of the purchase is to help PlayStation Studios develop live-service games, instead. The company has leaned heavily on single-player experiences over the last few years, but live-service games are a massive draw for the video game industry, with many generating billions in revenue. It’s unclear whether PlayStation plans on purchasing more studios familiar with live-service games, or if the company is looking at other areas it can improve.
Naturally, talk of more acquisitions is bound to cause some concern for gamers. While the Bungie purchase could prove very beneficial for PlayStation, when looked at alongside Xbox’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, it’s not hard to see how this kind of thing could get out of hand. Hopefully, that won’t end up being the case, and both of these acquisitions will prove beneficial for gamers, as well as for the video game industry.
Are you concerned about Sony and Microsoft buying too many studios? What companies do you think would benefit PlayStation? Let us know in the comments or shareyour thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
