Following Monday’s Blockbuster acquisition of Destiny developer Bungie, Sony plans to strengthen its PlayStation brand by acquiring more game studios.
Speaking to GameIndustry.biz, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said the shopping spree is far from over, promising the company “still has a lot of steps to go.”
The comments come as a growing concentration of ownership in the major gaming studios, with Bethesda and Activision joining Microsoft’s ranks more recently. Sony has been more modest in its acquisition strategy but still extremely active in the number of developers it buys out.
It snapped up Housemarque, the developer behind the PlayStation-exclusive Returnal last June. The company also bought Nixxes to port PlayStation properties to PC, as well as Valkyrie Entertainment, which co-develops the God of War series with Sony. It also owns Firesprite, which made the Playroom experiences.
However, the $3.6 million purchase of Bungie, which ironically created the Halo series for Xbox more than 20 years ago, represents its biggest purchase yet. However, Ryan says Sony is far from done.
“We should definitely expect more,” says Ryan. “We’re far from done. At PlayStation, we still have a long way to go. Personally, I’ll be spending a lot of time with Pete [CEO of Bungie] and the team at Bungie helping to ensure everything is in place and that autonomy means autonomy. But elsewhere in the organization we still have a lot to do.”
In the same interview, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons said the move “has nothing to do with industry consolidation.” He added, “It was all about a shared vision and how we can make things better together.”
“We also do a significant amount of philanthropy. How can we continue to do good for those in need? And what’s exciting for us is that Sony not only understood this desire and need to be independent and keep that flash in a bottle, but that they believe in our vision and the way we look at focus our vision. These aren’t just words, man. They really do.”