COMMENTARY - Sony Keeping Bungie IP Multiplatform Seems Like An Odd Choice

Tis your Destiny, good sir.

By Jay Tee
03/02/22

This current console generation has seen an unstoppable wave of big buck studio acquisitions, with major platform holders flexing their wallets in an attempt to secure meaningful, well established talent. How this all plays out in the medium to long term remains to be seen, but Sony’s decision to keep Bungie’s future IP as multi platform releases feels like a misstep.

While I totally understand the logic of leveraging Bungie’s expertise to support other PlayStation studios and their live service ambitions, it also seems short sighted of Sony to keep their future titles on competing platforms. Give players more reasons to invest in the PlayStation ecosystem, beyond (admittedly excellent) third person action games, especially at a time when Sony’s biggest threats are more likely the deep pockets of Amazon, Apple, Google, and Tencent than Microsoft.

All three major platform holders are taking a wildly different approach from each other these days, and remember: Microsoft didn’t spend all that money on Bethesda and Activision Blizzard to keep things the same. Yes, existing releases will be supported, but for them it’s about funnelling content into Game Pass on a regular basis.

As impressive as Sony’s first six months of the PS5 were, their pivot on cross gen releases and barren end of 2021 line up leaves them feeling rudderless. Yes, Horizon: Forbidden West will most likely be a barnstormer, but beyond that, God of War: Ragnarok and Gran Turismo 7 all have vague release windows, and that’s it.

They need to lay out their plans, and I believe said planning should include exclusive content from their acquisition of Bungie. When Housemarque, Insomniac, and Bluepoint (among several of their other recent gets) are all working on PS5 only stuff, it makes this approach with Bungie seem quite bizarre.