Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal • Hacker News Board

Re: Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal

#161

Post by kungito » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:23 PM UTC

awill wrote: post #78

Sony didn't want to do this. Microsoft forced their hand. I'm sure Sony is terrified of a world where MS keeps buying up hugely popular cross platform games and shutting them off. Sony said they want to keep Bungie cross platform. Maybe they're doing this to barter for Call of Duty with MS.

Well Sony was always the one aggressive with exclusives, not Microsoft. I only got PS5 to finally catch up on 5-10 exclusives I've wanted to play for the last few years. If it was only up to the specs everyone would go with Xbox Series X

Re: Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal

#162

Post by willis936 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:24 PM UTC

Hamuko wrote: post #46

saynay wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this the third time? I thought they were owned by Activision for a bit, before leaving again.

Publishing agreement, not ownership.

And yet they appeared to have an all-time low in creative freedom during that period.

Re: Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal

#163

Post by rpmisms » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:25 PM UTC

im_down_w_otp wrote: post #146

steveklabnik wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Myth was absolutely fantastic. They recently put a Claymore from it in Destiny, sadly it's not nearly as good as the shotgun from Marathon or the grenade launcher from Pathways into Darkness.

I have Pathways Into Darkness on my vintage Quadra 650 here. :-) Also, we should play Destiny. Not to turn HN into LFG or anything.

I'd join the HN Destiny clan in a heartbeat

Re: Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal

#164

Post by philistine » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:26 PM UTC

015a wrote: post #77

Outside looking in, this feels like a far more valuable acquisition than Activision for $69B. Call of Duty is valuable, but Microsoft has already said they don't intend to remove it from PlayStation. That could change, but so could CoD's importance to the video gaming industry as a whole: its popularity has dropped with essentially every release since BLOPS2. Outside of CoD: AB is a shadow of its former self; IMO the…

Mobile gaming invalidates all your argumentation. Activision Blizzard King has a large and successful mobile business that makes more money than anything you've described here. Bungie has none of that, which explains its far lower price.

Re: Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal

#165

Post by 015a » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:28 PM UTC

wklauss wrote: post #130

015a wrote: post #77

Outside looking in, this feels like a far more valuable acquisition than Activision for $69B. Call of Duty is valuable, but Microsoft has already said they don't intend to remove it from PlayStation. That could change, but so could CoD's importance to the video gaming industry as a whole: its popularity has dropped with essentially every release since BLOPS2. Outside of CoD: AB is a shadow of its former self; IMO the…

> Sony paid 20x less for Bungie. What they lack in variety of products, they make up for in, in my view, Potential. Not really. Destiny has a smaller audience than CoD, and Activision Blizzard is a huge purchase with lots a of valuable IPs that go beyond CoD and can still grow (Bungie, OTOH, currently only has Destiny in it's catalog). Bungie revenue was estimated around $300 million for 2019 vs. $6,5b for Activision…

Its important to put the Returnal numbers in context: it was never supposed to be a triple-A hit. Housemarque is a small (50-100 people) studio that traditionally made top-down or side-scrolling bullet hell shooters; they developed Returnal without being under the PSS banner (though certainly with financial support for the exclusive title); and it has sold 500k+ copies.

Compare that to Rift Apart, which last I heard is more in the 1-2M sales range. Insomniac is a true triple-A studio, with more like 400-500 employees plus the full development support of PSS's shared resources. Ratchet & Clank is a more broadly known franchise, in a genre and aesthetic that is more age and demographic accessible.

Additionally, while this would equally affect Returnal & Rift Apart; PS5 shortages do dampen all PS5 exclusive game sales compared to more broadly available titles.

Within that context, it's clear to me that Returnal was a tremendous success. Not a Triple-A success, but its not all about raw sales at the end of the day. Cost to produce also needs to be considered.

To be clear: I absolutely believe Xbox isn't just "all triple-A all the time". They have the triple-A teams. They have the smaller teams (Maybe not Rare/Playground as they're huge nowadays, but: Ninja Theory, Compulsion, Double Fine, World's Edge, maybe even Obsidian, plus their exclusivity deals with Moon and Asobo). Its more-so a discussion about their recent acquisitions strategy.

Re: Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal

#166

Post by sensitivefrost » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:33 PM UTC

mdasen wrote: post #148

015a wrote: post #77

Outside looking in, this feels like a far more valuable acquisition than Activision for $69B. Call of Duty is valuable, but Microsoft has already said they don't intend to remove it from PlayStation. That could change, but so could CoD's importance to the video gaming industry as a whole: its popularity has dropped with essentially every release since BLOPS2. Outside of CoD: AB is a shadow of its former self; IMO the…

It feels the opposite way to me. Microsoft bought a company with an extensive suite of IP that publishes a lot of games. Sony panicked and bought a company that has one franchise (Destiny). When looking at Disney, I see a company that has bought a lot of deep IP catalogues. They've used that to really propel their future and get high-value talent that wants to work in those universes with a Disney-sized budget to tel…

"Sony panicked and bought a company that has one franchise (Destiny)."

If you think Sony turned around and bought Bungie in the 2 weeks since the Acti-Blizz acquisition was announced, I dunno what to tell you.

Re: Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal

#167

Post by hlbjhblbljib » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:34 PM UTC

015a wrote: post #77

Outside looking in, this feels like a far more valuable acquisition than Activision for $69B. Call of Duty is valuable, but Microsoft has already said they don't intend to remove it from PlayStation. That could change, but so could CoD's importance to the video gaming industry as a whole: its popularity has dropped with essentially every release since BLOPS2. Outside of CoD: AB is a shadow of its former self; IMO the…

What is AB?

Re: Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal

#168

Post by Scramblejams » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:35 PM UTC

efficax wrote: post #4

jdalgetty wrote: post #2

So it's race to buy up all the publishers?

Sony is about to sunset Playstation Plus and Now and merge them into a service that will try to compete with Xbox Gamepass, and to do that you need games.

Should I max out my PS Plus subscription because it's about to get converted to something else at a favorable value ratio?

Re: Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal

#169

Post by scarface74 » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:40 PM UTC

015a wrote: post #77

Outside looking in, this feels like a far more valuable acquisition than Activision for $69B. Call of Duty is valuable, but Microsoft has already said they don't intend to remove it from PlayStation. That could change, but so could CoD's importance to the video gaming industry as a whole: its popularity has dropped with essentially every release since BLOPS2. Outside of CoD: AB is a shadow of its former self; IMO the…

You’re forgetting about how profitable (and disgusting) Activision’s mobile play to win games are.

Besides, MS needs content for its subscription gaming service. It’s not like consoles themselves are profitable. They are just a means to deliver games to users.

Re: Sony to buy video game maker Bungie in $3.6B deal

#170

Post by Macha » Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:45 PM UTC

sensitivefrost wrote: post #166

mdasen wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels the opposite way to me. Microsoft bought a company with an extensive suite of IP that publishes a lot of games. Sony panicked and bought a company that has one franchise (Destiny). When looking at Disney, I see a company that has bought a lot of deep IP catalogues. They've used that to really propel their future and get high-value talent that wants to work in those universes with a Disney-sized budget to tel…

"Sony panicked and bought a company that has one franchise (Destiny)." If you think Sony turned around and bought Bungie in the 2 weeks since the Acti-Blizz acquisition was announced, I dunno what to tell you.

On the flip side, it's highly unlikely that Sony didn't know talks were ongoing for ActiBlizz, and may even have been offered a chance at the same.