Sony to buy 'Destiny' studio Bungie: Talking Tech podcast
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Hey there listeners. It's Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. Who's ready to talk about Mall World. I'm just kidding. We are not going to talk about that game. I feel like that's all I talk about. We will stick with gaming as a topic though. It turns out Microsoft isn't the only video game giant that is spending a lot of money acquiring video game properties and studios. Sony, which makes the PlayStation 5 and has had a long running spot in the console business with its PlayStation platform announced a deal to buy video games studio, Bungie for $3.6 billion.
I write about this in a story that you can read on tech.usatoday.com. It's significant for a couple reasons. First off, Bungie makes the online action series, Destiny. It has been very popular. It is an online first person action game and it has drawn quite the following. Bungie also created Halo, which happens to be the franchise that helped launch the Xbox and gave Microsoft a spot next to Sony as one of the top console makers in the market. That is an interesting twist of fate there.
Of course, when it comes to consumers, the first thing that comes out is what does this mean for me playing my game on another device? So Destiny's available on the PlayStation and the Xbox. You can play it on PC and Google Stadia as well. Bungie came out with a statement when this was announced, basically saying the game is going to remain on all its current platforms. Here is the quote that is direct from Bungie, "We will continue to independently publish and creatively develop our games." So for Sony, if they get this deal approved, it's a really huge deal. Bungie is a fantastic studio, it would give the PlayStation 5 a really big boost. And again, odds are we'll see Destiny as it's available now on all platforms. Don't be surprised if at some point we see either a new Destiny game or Destiny expansions, things like that, that are available just for PlayStation.
It's something that a lot of people wonder too, with Microsoft when they announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, which creates franchises like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft in a deal worth $68.7 billion. And again, same thing, PlayStation owners initially worried that here come, Call of Duty's going to go away. I'm not going to be able to play it anymore. Again, I think a lot of the Call of Duties that we're seeing right now are going to stay put. Anything in the future, once this deal is done very possible. We just see it on the Xbox, we see it on PC where there's certain incentives to playing it on the Xbox or the PC as opposed to the PlayStation.
The other interesting angle to all this though, is a lot of consolidation in the video game space. We saw Take-Two Interactive by Zynga, which is the maker of FarmVille for $12.7 billion, which is again interesting because you've taken the guys that make Grand Theft Auto and paired them with the studio that makes FarmVille so that's fun. We also recently had to deal with Electronic Arts, they bought Codemasters, which is a studio that develops popular racing games. And again, it is just the first signs of what we're seeing, a growing consolidation within in the video game space. It's drawing a lot of money and there are thoughts that this might continue. So this might just be the beginning. We might see more deals like this. Where this goes, we don't know. We'll keep you posted though.
Make sure to follow all our coverage on tech.usatoday.com. Listeners let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas? Any tech problems you want us to try to address? You can find me on Twitter @BrettMolina23. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. Don't forget it's Thursday. That means a new Talking Tech newsletter's out. You can subscribe @newsletters.usatoday.com. You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit for the world of tech.