The war of the consoles between Sony and Microsoft has been a persistent fixture in gaming history, with the two often being regarded as the main contenders for the crown of console king. These so-called console wars seemed to escalate with a flurry of high-profile acquisitions in the past year – first by Microsoft with the $7.5 billion purchase of Zenimax Media and then later the even bigger $68.7 billion acquisition of Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard. However, Sony quickly returned fire with a big-money purchase of their own, paying $3.6 billion for Halo and Destiny creators Bungie.
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The deal represents something of an about-face for Bungie, which was owned by Microsoft for a period of 7 years between 2000-2007. Bungie was responsible for the development of the Halo series, which went on to become one of Xbox’s flagship titles. The Halo series is still owned by Microsoft, having been retained as part of the 2007 deal which saw Bungie become an independent company once again.
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What this means for Playstation players is that, sadly, they won’t be seeing a Halo entry as a result of this deal. However, Bungie does still have a catalog of games to bring to the table, with more recent releases Destiny and Destiny 2 the most notable among them. Below is a full list of the franchises that will now fall under Sony’s control.
Which Bungie Games Like Destiny That Sony Owns
Sony will now own the following Bungie games:
• Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete (1992)
• Pathways into Darkness (1993)
• Marathon (1994)
• Marathon 2: Durandel (1995)
• Marathon Infinity (1996)
• Destiny (2014)
• Destiny 2 (2017)
Most gamers will probably be unfamiliar with many of these titles except Marathon 2: Durandel and the Destiny series were only playable on the Classic Mac OS or, in the case of Marathon, the Apple Pippin. Marathon 2: Durandel did go on to receive a port to Windows a year after its initial release in 1996 and later appeared on the Xbox Live Arcade in 2007.
Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete was a role-playing adventure game with a notable distinction from others of its time. It was primarily focused on its multiplayer mode which functioned over the AppleTalk protocol or the Point-to-Point protocol. One thing modern gamers may recognize from Minotaur is the tagline of the game “Kill your enemies. Kill your friends’ enemies. Kill your friends.” This went on to feature in the multiplayer menu screens for some of Bungie’s other games, most notably Halo 3.
Pathways Into Darkness was a first-person shooter action-adventure game that originally started as a sequel to Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete before the developers created an original story and it became its own entity. In the game, the player is thrust into the shoes of a Special Forces Officer tasked with stopping a god-like being from awakening and destroying the world, with the ending being determined by the player’s actions throughout the course of the game. Pathways Into Darkness was Bungie’s first real commercial success, generating enough money for the company to move into its first dedicated office, having previously been based in developer Alex Seropian’s apartment.
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Marathon had many themes reminiscent of the more modern Halo games series. It was a first-person shooter set centuries in the future in which the player takes control of a security officer attempting to retake a colony ship from an alien invasion force. It was one of the first games to employ free look, allowing the use of a mouse to fire weapons and rotate the character’s view. It was also notable for being one of the first games to give the player the ability to look up and down, in addition, to forward, left, and right.
The story and gameplay mechanics were expanded upon further in the two sequels: Marathon 2: Durandel and Marathon Infinity. Although most of the core features from Marathon remained unchanged, There were several more subtle tweaks such as a rearranging of the HUD and the addition of ambient sounds such as wind and alarms. Marathon Infinity was also released with Forge and Anvil, the level-designing and physics software used in the creation of the game. This gave players the ability to create their own levels in the same way the developers had.
What Sony’s Bungie Acquisition Means For Destiny & Destiny 2
Destiny and Destiny 2 are undoubtedly the jewel in Bungie’s crown and the main factor behind the $3.6 billion price tag. Destiny enjoyed an unexpectedly successful release, selling over $325 million at retail in its first 5 days, making it the largest launch of a new gaming franchise in the history of the industry according to TIME. A first-person shooter with elements borrowed from RPGs and MMOs, Destiny was generally well-received by critics and went on to receive 4 expansion packs in the following 2 years leading up to the release of the sequel, Destiny 2.
Related: What Sony Owning Bungie Means For Destiny Players
Destiny 2 was initially launched in 2017 as a pay-to-play game. However, in 2019 it switched instead to a free-to-play title under the games as a service model, shifting their revenue source to the battle pass as well as paid expansion plans and microtransactions. Destiny 2, like its predecessor, enjoyed a successful launch, becoming the second-highest-grossing console game of 2017 in North America, only beaten by Call of Duty: WWII.
With estimations putting the yearly revenue at Bungie at anywhere between $100-$500 million, most of which can be attributed to Destiny 2, it is still a lucrative game even 5 years after release and represents the primary driving force behind the price of the Sony deal. A few notable Bungie games absent from this list other than the Halo series, such as strategy titles Myth: The Fallen Lords, Myth II: Soulbringer, and third-person action title Oni could have been choices for a revival under Sony. However, as part of the takeover deal with Microsoft in 2000, control of these games was handed to Take-Two Interactive which owned 19.9% of the studio at the time.
It would seem the deal is primarily driven by the Destiny series; however, it is possible that Sony would be interested in modernizing one of Bungie’s older titles, and perhaps even repurposing it into a first-person shooter to rival Halo and Microsoft-owned Call of Duty. Sony has also expressed an interest in entering the GaaS market and so it’s likely the company will look to Bungie’s experience in this market to help drive its growth.
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About The Author
Trent Nealgrove
(1 Articles Published)
Trent Nealgrove is a 30 year old gamer from Brighton in the UK. He has been a lifelong gamer, playing all manner of games from Super Mario All-Stars through to Dark Souls. He has always had a passion for writing and gaming, so it was only natural to bring them together!
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Title: All Bungie Games Sony Will Own Now | Screen Rant
Sourced From: screenrant.com/bungie-games-sony-playstation-owns-full-list-destiny/
Published Date: February 15, 2022
