Sony is in the process of acquiring Bungie, and while that’s a pretty big deal for the games industry, anyone who doesn’t play Bungie’s games may not have much of a reason to care. For Destiny players though, the acquisition throws the franchise’s entire future into the air. Previous acquisitions, like Microsoft’s purchase of ZeniMax Media, have led to franchises that used to be cross-platform becoming platform exclusives.
So, what does Bungie’s acquisition mean for the Destiny franchise and the game’s fans? Let’s break it down.
Is the Destiny franchise moving off Xbox?
Executives from both sides of this deal — Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan and Bungie CEO Pete Parsons — have stated that the Destiny games won’t suddenly become PlayStation exclusives.
Ryan’s statement about the acquisition on the PlayStation blog opens with him bluntly stating: “First off, I want to be very clear to the community that Bungie will remain an independent and multiplatform studio and publisher.” But this is grade-A executive speak. In neither of their statements do Ryan or Parsons mention Xbox, or explicitly state that the Destiny franchise will remain on Xbox consoles.
Multiplatform doesn’t simply refer to PlayStation and Xbox. If a game is playable on PC and PlayStation consoles, for instance, it is multiplatform. Destiny 2 is currently playable on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Google Stadia. Cutting Xbox consoles out of there would still leave the game as a multiplatform title.
But players won’t have to worry about their game being pulled away from them any time soon. In an FAQ, Destiny 2‘s development team said that Destiny would continue to be supported on Xbox, Steam, and Stadia.
Will future Bungie games be PlayStation exclusives?
Bungie’s future titles are in much murkier territory. In the same FAQ from Destiny’s development team, the studio said that none of its future games would become PlayStation exclusives. However, that leaves space for the games to release on other platforms, like PC and Stadia, keeping the game multiplatform. We simply won’t know if future Bungie titles will be released across all platforms, Xbox included, until they’re announced.
Thankfully, the remaining content for Destiny 2 won’t become exclusive to any platforms. Nothing from the game’s upcoming expansion, The Witch Queen, or any of the game’s other expansions up to 2024 will be changed. Whatever plans Bungie had for that content prior to the acquisition are still in place.
How will Bungie change if the acquisition goes through?
One of the main points hammered home by both Ryan and Parsons in their statements on the acquisition is that Bungie is going to remain independent.
“We will continue to independently publishr and creatively develop our games,” said Parsons in a blog post on Bungie’s website. Of course, things like that can change in the future. Sony can eventually rein Bungie in and have it work more closely with other PlayStation studios.
Immediately though, Bungie’s team will grow. With Sony’s support, Bungie is going to be getting a lot more cash to work with, which means additional hires and the ability to put more resources into Destiny 2.
Was the purchase a way to get back at Microsoft?
As funny as it would be for two of the biggest companies in gaming to start one-upping each other by throwing billions of dollars around, that’s absolutely not the case. Deals like these take months, if not years to sort out. According to GamesIndustry.biz head Christopher Dring, this particular deal has been in the works for around half a year. It’s not something that was put together in response to Microsoft’s ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
