Sony's $3.6 Billion Deal To Buy Bungie Is Under Scrutiny From FTC

If I'm Sony I'm thinking please, please please get us out of this deal. What the heck were we thinking paying a whopping 3.6 billion for this dev. lol :P

Anywho, likely will go through so no worries.

Thoughts?

The Story.

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Sony's $3.6 Billion Deal To Buy Bungie Is Under Scrutiny From FTC

While the FTC may not be able to block the deal, it is sending a message that big tech mergers are being examined more closely by it.

By Darryn Bonthuys on May 6, 2022 at 7:08AM PDT

According to The Information (via VGC), the FTC may not be in a position to block the deal, but it can still review it, reinforcing its stance to probe for potential antitrust issues in the gaming industry.

Consolidation in the gaming industry has increased recently, and while Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax and Bethesda wasn't investigated by the FTC when it was completed in March 2021, the $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is being looked into. Though the sale isn't final yet, Activision Blizzard shareholders have approved it and the next step will involve scrutiny from the FTC and regulatory bodies in Europe and China.

Sony's long-term plans for Bungie include making the studio an "independent subsidiary" of PlayStation that will still develop games for multiple platforms once the deal is complete.

This is one deal Sony should bail on. It lacks logic. If this was Square Enix, then the logic would be clear and the number of studios that would be part of the deal but this is just Bungie.😵‍💫

It's pretty standard...

@Pedro: Yeah, I don't get it. I don't have any good insight of how much a videogame company like that should cost, how much revenue they get from Destiny, etc.. but 3.6 billion for Bungie sounds insane.

Now we're gonna see Jason Schreier defend this acquisition against government overreach... Watch...

LMAO!

It’s funny you sound like that with this developer, seeing that this is the very same developer that consistently did justice to Xbox’s number 1 exclusive when they oversaw development.

@ermacness:

Oh hey man, I always loved Bungie, that's no secret as is no secret they alone put Xbox on the map so to speak but seriously that sum of money Sony paid for them is yuuuge for a single dev with currently one game in their stable.

Still love Bungie and Bioware who were my favs for a long time but I've said many times in the not so distant past, they're both just not what they once were.

Ruh, roh! Looks like trouble in paradise! 😱

good to hear. If the AB deal is scrutinized, then why should sony scrape by with its acquisitions. Its not just the big buys like bungie, and bethesda, and AB, but all the smaller studios that have been bought by sony that needs to be put under a microscope.

Sony as the number 1 Revenue publisher even after the Microsoft Activision deal should be under more scrutiny then Microsoft. There more of a monopoly

Weird flex, FTC, but okay.

part of the reason the FTC is such an important organization is because of IP/patent/trademark laws. If you know me, you would know my stance on IP laws and how I have zero love for them. I have never believed ideas, which are imaginary, in your head and have no form should be called property. "Intellectual property" is the biggest scam in human history, and how far the politicians and elite go with abusing these laws is completely communist. I'm not going to speak more of my hate for these laws because that would enter into political gamers.

Because these laws exist on the book when they shouldn't, they completely lopside the free market. Without these laws, there would be natural competition in the marketplace, and the consumer would end up ahead. The FTC has the purpose to balance the IP laws with the needs of natural consumer market place competition (where IP laws don't exist)

@greygoose12: Sony is not even close to a monopoly.

I guess no Halo for the Playstation Cows. 😂

@blaznwiipspman1: I don't think you know what communist means.

Why is this under ANY SCRUTINY. A bigger company Microsoft spent 60x the money on activision THIS DEAL should be hidden until other one is scrutinized period dont' ever say sony when microsoft is around PERIOD.

So it should,they paid waaaaaaaaaaaay over the top when you look at what MS got for 7 billion

It's arguable whether it's a worthy investment, not going to dispute that though, but what I thought might have been a significant factor was just how much of an impact the MS Activision-Blizzard announcement made and how people were like "where's Sony's answer to that?". And their stock price was taking a big hit, and not sure if it makes a difference but probably not good to approach the end of the fiscal year with dropping stock price. Granted this deal was likely being haggled out for months before but I don't doubt the timing played a possible factor in accelerating the deal, possibly making Sony need to pay more than if the haggled it out longer. And if that is indeed the case, well, those $3 billion or whatever, it went to more than just acquiring Bungie, but also a timely necessary company maneuver for reassuring investors. That Wall Street side can compel companies to do some rather counter-intuitive measures. Take for instance Microsoft, like years back they had some bad quarter or fiscal year and just canned their in house developer who made Flight Sim games. Never mind the studio wasn't a financial drain, they just did it as a demonstrative gesture that they'd make cuts in hopes to get profits/revenue trending other direction. That's business I guess.

I still can't believe that Sony paid billions of dollars for just Bungie.

@Pedro: its all on a spectrum. What the government is doing with IP laws and patents, trademarks, things that don't exist in a natural free market, is very much a highly socialist policy meant to manipulate the free market more. The difference is, it just affects the lower and middle class, and helps pad the wallet of the rich. It does not belong in a free market, and is very much a socialist tax.

That's one of the big reasons the FTC exist in the first place. Otherwise a company with big pockets can abuse the patent laws and buy up all the small companies unimpeded. This would hurt competition severely and consumers would pay the price.

But you said communist, first. Now it’s socialist?

I hate what Fox News has done to this country…

Sony is both poor and a giant monopoly. They need to pick one!

Can someone check if mowgly is ok?

Can’t still get over the fact that bungie is worth 3,6 billion, I mean they have one single game active and as far as I know no other upcoming games?? Destiny must rake in crazy cash!

@blaznwiipspman1: So the answer is that you don't know.

@blaznwiipspman1: The creator of Tetris would love to have lived in your delirious idea of communism instead of... you know, the USSR.

No way Insomniac was only worth $229 million but Bungie is somehow worth $3 billion.

https://www.polygon.com/2020/2/10/21131899/sony-purchase-acquisition-insomniac-games-2019-2020-spider-man-sunset-overdrive-ratchet-clank

Sony and MS are both under investigation by the FTC... So why did the title single out Sony?

im sure he would have loved to, so he could be a billionaire off his "tetris invention" and the patents that would have enabled him to do it while milking the public teet. Instead, hes just a millionaire, living in the US with his family, and doing well for himself. The world got a bunch of iterations of tetris because of his work and weren't encumbered by the patents either. Win win for all.

@blaznwiipspman1: You're joking right, or just manipulating information to save face?

@ghost_of_phobos:

Why are you calling me out? Mind you that this deal won't be blocked

@mowgly1: Glad to see you survived this thread. For a second I feared the worst.

@blaznwiipspman1: I think you need a vacation, and some meds. Probably more meds the more I think about it.

Survived what? lol. This deal won't be blocked. What the hell you are trying to spin, Xbox fan?

@mowgly1: I just noticed that you really get emotionally involved with this kinda of news and didn't saw you in the whole thread and got worried. But excuuuse me princess, I won't worry about you ever again!

@vfighter: Hey, stop it! Meds are basically communism!

I think Sony wants to acquire a studio that has mastered the "Games as a Service" process to future-proof their corporation. I think they're seeing the writing on the wall that, while still good games, there's more money in the GaaS model than the one-shot cinematic singleplayer stuff.

All them years of milking cows just to spunk a few billion away by overpaying as a knee jerk reaction to MS buying studios

@mrbojangles25: This is true but the pricetag for one studio feels steep.

SquareEnix just sold a bunch of awesome franchises for ridiculously cheap... Whilst Sony purchased Bungie for billions.. Somethings very off with this.. Sony should back out of it.

Yeah, it does feel steep. One studio with a decent pedigree, but has only really focused on a single IP for the last 10 or so years.

Still, I'm curious what their yearly profit and total profit from the Destiny series has been, plus the cost of development of Destiny 2.

Definitely not outstanding because Activision let Bungie free from their deal by terminating the contract early.

Did they? I just read about that specific contract; I think they had a 10-year contract, how long did it go for?

I think somewhere around 8 years. The deal was for 3 mainline games within 10 years. Bungie is well behind the schedule.

I think people are forgetting that a third of the cost of Bungie is for employee retention and might never be fully paid out.

Either way, $2.4B is still quite a lot.

Destiny 1 and 2 suck ass. Hopefully their next game is good.

Also whatever it is, it will be best on PC. But thank you Sony for funding it!

@simple-facts: True. The acquisition of Betheseda was a brilliant move, almost a bargain at 7 billion. I am having a hard time imagining how Bungie can be profitable for Sony even at "only" half the price of Bethseda. I don't expect any killer titles from them.

What the the you are trying to spin, Xbox fan? Man, Xbox fans are so dumb.