Sony, the PlayStation-maker, is increasing its competition with Microsoft Xbox by purchasing the video game studio that developed one of Xbox’s most popular games.
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Monday that it will spend $3.6 billion on Bungie Inc., an independent publisher of games based in Bellevue (Washington). Bungie is the creator of the popular Destiny game series and the original developer for Xbox-owned Halo.
Microsoft purchased Bungie in 2000. However, the company later sold the studio to another company, Halo Interactive, and retained the intellectual property rights to Halo. Microsoft recently announced plans to purchase Activision Blizzard, a high-profile publisher of games, for $68.7billion. Microsoft would be the third-largest gaming company worldwide, after Tencent and Sony, if it acquired Candy Crush and Call of Duty’s owner. On Monday, Spencer tweeted his appreciation to PlayStation for “adding talent” to its games studios.
Bungie was founded in Chicago in 1991 and has made some of its most popular hits for personal computers, including Marathon and Myth. About 900 people work for Bungie, which is located near Redmond, Washington’s Microsoft headquarters. The headquarters of Sony’s video games division are located in San Mateo (California).
