Sony has now revealed that they want to turn Bungie IPs into movies. Apparently that's the hidden plan behind their recent acquisition.
The other day, I wrote about Sony's plan to release 10 live-service games before 2026, with Bungie making one of them. In said article, I was wondering about the Bungie-Sony game plan, seeing as how Bungie flat-out stated that their games would not be PlayStation exclusives. I wondered why Sony invested $4 billion into a gaming company that they don't even plan to turn into a first-party studio. Now... it all makes a little more sense:
Sony Wants To Turn Bungie Franchises Into Movies
In a recent earnings call, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki was asked about the benefits of the Bungie acquisition, and he gave the following answer:
[It's] not just for [the] gaming area, but the multi-using of IP and merchandising of IP – like a game title maybe put into movies. Bungie want to nurture the IP they have in a multi-dimensional manner, and that's their hope. For that, we believe we can help that – we have [Sony] Pictures and [Sony] Music, and Bungie can leverage our platform so that their IP can flourish and grow big.
So that was the plan all along, huh... Now obviously the first game that comes to mind is Halo. Will Sony turn Halo into a movie? Sadly, Bungie only developed Halo, while Microsoft retains the intellectual property, so there is nothing that Sony can do with the Master Chief. However, the Destiny franchise is entirely available for Sony to bring to the silver screen as they want.
Sometimes we forget that Sony is more than just the PlayStation. Of course, it makes sense for them to think about the entire company, rather than just a singular system, when making billion-dollar acquisitions... silly me.