Sony Is Spending Over $1 Billion to Ensure Bungie Employees Don't Leave

Well, obviously. They are paying for expertise more than the IPs. No good getting Bungie then everyone leaving. It’s likely everyone does this to some degree.

I like it so far and I'll give it time until I come to my final conclusion. Right now Microsoft spent 7 billion on Zenimax and ain't get one game yet Sony about to have 2.

Crazy. I wish my firm thought like this lol.

It makes sense based on why they’re buying them, but they’re also pissing off all their other employees in the process…..

I'm getting tired of this Jim Ryan guy.
This and last gen I didn't care who's at the top and didn't follow any news regarding that stuff.
Sign this freaking petition at least. Doesn't do jack, but hopefully sends a message.
https://www.change.org/p/sony-remove-jim-ryan-as-ceo-of-playstation?redirect=false

It certainly would be a disaster if Sony spent $2.4B acquiring Bungie and the key players left to form another independent studio. Bungie has always been very weird about their independence.

@TheCollector316 I take it they really didn't like it working under MS and don't want to potentially experience that again.

If you think about this move it's actually brilliant in my opinion. They are giving Bungie resources and respect as they do all there other first party studios to make sure they can leverage every ounce of talent now and in the future. This team is also going to help jumpstart other multiplayer projects that first party studios may have in the works as well. Smart play, Mr. Ryan.

On the face of it, it does seem 'odd' to spend $3.6bn, part of that to keep the 'employees' too, for something that doesn't seem to 'benefit' Sony's Console platform. However, we don't really know how this deal will benefit Sony long term - that skill set, their expertise etc as well as the marketing power.

Even though Sony never owned CoD or Destiny, those games BOTH sold Playstation consoles by association. The marketing and platform branding help sell Playstation consoles - even though 'both' games were multi-platform games...

@munstre spot on!

Nope they would not buy this developer out of panic. Better options for that. This is because Sony currently sucks at live service and they want Bungie's workforce (bigger than Insomniac and Guerilla I think) and who happen to be experienced at live service. Insomniac had a strong relationship already and therefore acquisition was less likely to cause panic amongst employees. Bungie is a different case as they had third party relationship and a higher risk of a mass exodus. They are not buying IPs here. They are buying the workforce (and one of the best available ones) to make new live service games.

Also I suspect a lot of Bungie employees will become live managerial advisors for first party devs regarding live service and that affects financial incentives.

Gee, just imagine if Sony was willing to sacrifice this much money to keep Japan Studio around to keep letting them do their thing, instead of shuttering them and letting go of people who had been with the company for over 25 years...

@naruball

Yeah. They didn't enjoy being a Halo factory and clearly wanted to do more.

@art_of_the_kill
Aye. Sony definitely needs more Japanese teams and games. It's clear they can't just rely on others making them anymore. You better believe Microsoft buying as many Japanese publishers as they can until Xbox is popular in Japan is not outside of the realm or possibility.

@art_of_the_kill They kept the part of Japan Studio that had developed successful games in the last 15 years (Asobi); other than XDev work (which will continue), Japan Studio really wasn't delivering anymore

@munstre yeah was about to say. Aren't they bigger than both Insomniac and Guerilla combined?

Crazy money, but I understand their approach. If they want to develop on service games, Bungie has been pretty successful in that department, so keeping their most important players is a wise investment. Not many companies are successful in this area, so they want those employees that obviously have the skills to make it work.

And for all we know, other Sony studios could well be making a service game, so these employees would lend their knowledge into those departments.. in turn potentially making those games more successful.

But why would bungie employees be ready to leave unless they had issues with either Bungie or Sony?

@Richnj I'd imagine it's more of being burnt twice.

Maybe I'm being way too naive, but I thought this was an industry-standard practice when a big acquisition of a publisher like this occurs. If it isn't, that's good on Sony for paying more to keep the current talent happy.

All this and multiplatform. Maybe this is the new future, who knows what will happen over time.

Whatever Bungie are doing if they stay independent and multiplatform we all benefit game wise.
All seems a bit odd to me this purchase.

@themightyant You say that as if there’s no reason anyone would have a problem with him despite how he lied to us about believing in generations, came near the verge of shutting down three previous storefronts simultaneously and expected it to go over well because he thought everyone else hated older games as much as he does , is one of the pushers for $70 next-gen games, etc., etc., etc….

They just don't want the Bungie staff to do a Rare when a load of devs left just after the M$ acquisition.

So expect a new studio staffed by ex-Bungie devs in about a year's time....

In this day and age when we are told of all the horrible ***** that happens at other companys its refreshing to see a big name company actually caring about their employees..a cynical move considering the current toxic workplace storys? Maybe but still nice to hear about for once..

Now we know why its $3.6B Dollars

@get2sammyb “would you not be looking around the corner, knowing your own value, and seeing another studio getting crazy incentives and the freedom to do what they want…?”

Bend Studio would be a good one to ask about that. 😅

@BoldAndBrash Jim won't be going anywhere while the profits are good!

This makes a lot of sense because buying a studio is basically just buying the IP and taking away from competitors and maybe you get employees for 3 months, after that employees are free to leave. It wouldn't be much of an acquisition if all the staff left.

@TheCollector316 There really is no major guarantee that Bungie won't become a PlayStation studio in the future, so structuring the deal in this way means that there are some guarantees and the staff can just leave if they feel like they have been betrayed.

@art_of_the_kill Sony could have restructured Japan Studio to make them the Naughty Dog or Guerilla of Japan. It's such a shame that they basically threw away the studio and history. It would have only taken a change in management to chose someone to lead who would make a commercially viable game. I understand that games like Gravity Rush and Patapon, whilst amazing and very special, do not have that much global appeal. It isn't that difficult to find a commercially viable idea that people are interested in making. The sad thing is that PlayStation aren't a Japanese company anymore. Still, the balance is not quite right, maybe Sony will be considering opening up a new Studio in Japan or acquiring an existing studio(s).

I means by all accounts it sounds like Sony's other teams are generally happy with the amount of freedom Sony allows. Insomniac seemed super pumped to be working on their Marvel games. The only one that sounds like it had some disagreement is Bend studio and it sounds like they have moved on.

Clearly Sony sees Bungie as a major partner for their future so I'm not shocked to see them want to keep their talent from leaving.

I do not understand why people currently always bash on playstation leadership. PS5 seems to be doing fine with its "meager" 10TF, the first year of PS5 wasn't too bad (also with new IPs e.g. Returnal, Kena), This year doesn't look bad either, without even knowing the majority of titles originally planned for this year (assuming that GT7, HFW were meant to release last year but got delayed due to COVID). Also PSVR2 looks very promising. There are the supply chain issues which seem to plague the entire world.. Other than that I do not see errors made so far. Therefore, I would assume that the latest acquisitions are reasoned rather than panic reactions.

@themightyant
It's not like it's anything new. PS fans have been complaining for years. Dude is out of touch.
https://twitter.com/imranzomg/status/1374033875601477632?s=20&t=GG-51AYwvFSf5QwjR2u1bw

You can see his live service vision all over this site.
Closing Japan Studio. PS games going to PC. Killzone gone, Days Gone sequel gone. The reason Evolution Studios was gone, was because they were forced to make a completely different game than what they had been making and forced to make it work with all this online social garbage it had.
Driveclub was absolutely STELLAR. I still go back to it when I'm not satisfied with new racers coming out.

PS was always about its lineup and building trust with its fans, because of its track record. First time I'm not hyped about a new console. Their first party games have yet to prove PS5's true power. Horizon won't be it either. It's crossgen, sorry

I don't mind of most of the decisions they've made, but I do miss their past apporach, like greenlighting games that were AA and they knew they wouldn't sell all that well, but they gave them a chance anyway, because they could be profitable even if 4/10 games they made weren't.

I miss games like Gravity Rush, Tearaway and the like. I wouldn't mind if they made 100 games I wasn't interested in, as long as they made smaller games, too. Puppeteer also comes to mind.

So the base price is comparable to fking Minecraft that Ms paid for 8 years ago.

Pachter in 2014:
"It gives them an entry into mid core, can differentiate their devices, and can generate revenue for 10 years," Pachter said. "I think you will see Master Chief and Gears characters in future versions of Minecraft. It gives them another strong franchise with a desirable installed base of young people."

🧐

Microsoft bought Activision after everyone had left so…..

Can people stop bringing up Insomniac in these buyout conversations? Insomniac didn’t even have 200 employees at the time of the buyout. Bungie has 1000. Insomniac, outside of a few random titles, has only been on PlayStation. Bungie has been multi platform since leaving MS. The two cannot be compared.

Deferred payments are a normal way for companies to retain talent. It'd be more surprising if they weren't doing this. If this isn't common in the video game industry, then video game companies are even worse to work at than everyone already knows. It's surely happening at the other subsidiaries too.

Oh dear. People still moaning to have a cross gen days gone but at the same time can’t stand cross gen games.
🤷🏼‍♂️🤪

@BoldAndBrash you act like he’s always been in charge lol. He’s only been head of PlayStation since 2019. He was in marketing prior. Evolution closed well before then and they were trying to make Driveclub a live service game back then….which again was before Ryan was in charge. It’s Hulst and Guerilla’s call on Killzone not Ryan’s. Also, according to the director of Days Gone, it was his immediate management that nixed a sequel, not Ryan and Hulst.

If it was Microsoft purchasing Bungie the comments here would be "what a waste on washed up has-beens that haven't done anything remotely creative since Halo 2" on the other side of the coin if It was Sony purchasing Bethesda "lol Sony just wasted money on infinite glitches and bugs, Playstation the new home of bugs incorporated lololl"

Is just strange that one moment you could be indifferent or think negatively of a Bungie or Bethesda but as soon as they join your team "oh man what talent, incredible developers and visionaries with unmatched potential that will usher in a new era"

Tribalism really is fascinating 🙂

I imagine this will effect all future deals as other companies would want similar benefits.

@Juanalf
Tribalism really is fascinating
Indeed. That could very well be a line from Spencer 😅
You know well Push would freak out about another FPS gone for good and doom and gloom all around here about Sony loosing money. And yes that would be factually Ms trying to grab every thing which they probably tried.
It’s indeed funny the one sided takes.

@munstre Guess it makes you realise how good of a deal MS got zenimax for huh…

Great news, good for Bungie and Sony. They deserve the great thing ahead

$1.6B spread amongst the 1000 employees(for sake of arguement), that's $1.6 million each, to stay on board. But for how long, what will they do, will there be freedom to do what they want, etc.

Feels like every single Sammy article on here is a passive-aggressive dig at Sony. Everything they do is terrible.
Strangely enough, I’m having an awesome time with my PS5 and the console is destroying the Series X in sales.
But reading through Push Square’s current coverage, you’d think the PS5 is doing worse than the Jaguar 64.

Push Negativity strikes again...

They want Bungie to help them jumpstart their Games as Service push.

Shareholders love this kind of thing because Fortnite and other BR games.

I'm sure Insomniac got huge bonuses for Metacritic marks and big game sales.

And this is why none of us run a massive company, I suppose.

@CynicalGamer nail on the head right there mate

@BoldAndBrash Same here. I'd never understood why to care for these executives until Jim Ryan getting on top of Playstation and changing the things that made Playstation well Playstation. I really don't think any Petition can change the course of the executive position though. It gotta hurt at their bank account. That's the only language they speak. Give it a couple of years. They might lose or at least stagnate financially.

This all smells fishy...

Makes me laugh how certain people think they know better than a billion dollar company ,whos employees are people who have spent decades in this field,does anyone seriously think Sony would've have just thrown away 3.6 billion out of some form of desperation,give yer head a wobble son,I personally think that spending 70 billion on cod was a complete waste of money but hey this is pure xbox ,I mean push square so what do I know

@Kanelbulle of course it is,he bums gamepass 😂😂

Is PushSquare an anti-Sony/Playstation website in disguise? These guys keep putting a negative spin on every Playstation news somehow. I came to this website to get away from all the baseless doom and gloom and hate for Sony on other websites but it is kind of the same over here too. The pro-Xbox websites are much more positive and loyal towards their preferred brand and its management's actions, especially Spencer. They would praise Spencer even if he punched a baby and kicked some puppies. On other hand, over here Sony would get bashed even if they cured cancer and eliminated world poverty somehow.

@Juanalf im not a fan of destiny I dont think its a bad game just not my cup of tea ,with regards to the halo bungie created it was fantastic I loved halo on the xbox ,the halo that came after was a steaming pile of ***** and that includes halo infinite, bungie are a good studio are they worth 3.6 billion ?,well Sony thinks so,and they probably know better than all the negativity Nellies to be fair.

@Apfelschteiner exactly ,look at rare ,micrososft acquired them,everyone left,rare went to ***** ,I wonder how many devs will leave ms when they realise they're just a gamepass fodder machine churning out crap after crap.

I figure this is a fairly standard thing in the modern game industry.

The numbers just seem huge because Bungie is a huge studio with a metric crap ton of employees.

@themightyant If I had a dollar for every time a bureaucrat "regretted saying" something that caused negative PR and personal backlash.......

@BoldAndBrash The irony is Japan Studio was one of the only studios at Sony toying with live service features with Gravity Rush 2. And Sony promptly shut down the servers as soon as quotas weren't hit..........

Oh F Pachter. He is not an analyst, he is a speculator. His objective is to drive up the value of convenient stock.
You can completely disregard everything he says.

Now, as for Sony. It is clear they have a lot running on Bungie and they are taking the steps for a great relationship.
I don't understand the masterplan completely, but i know if nothing else, they are leverage so microsoft plays nice.

@Grimwood "The only big good company" Sony is not a good company. They aren't our friends, no gaming company is

buy more studios

@OneWingedAngel You seem to be a Sony fanboy, it's not healthy. People can be negative towards a company. Be open minded on stuff like this instead

@Envy
Why are you so obsessed with what "Sony fanboys" say and do in every other comment of yours?? It seems you have taken it upon yourself to rid the internet of "fanboy cancer." This obsession and salt are what is truly unhealthy. Relax and enjoy your life in the real world instead of fighting a crusade online. I just noticed a pattern in the recent articles and I called it out. And I am not the only one either; several users have noticed it and pointed it out in their comments under several articles in the past few days including the current one.

@themightyant "In an ideal world i'd love to see them stay open in perpetuity."

Better yet, in an ideal world we wouldn't need those old storefronts to stay up because those games would be available on modern hardware.

@themightyant The numbers don't lie. Hardly anyone wants to play the original Gran Turismo. Gamers are a funny bunch, no doubt if the original Gran Turismo was re-released for 70 quid people would be complaining that that is way too much money (I'd agree). A lot of these people who say they value backwards compatibility won't put their money where their mouths are.
I get what you are saying about Japan Studio's output. Who is to blame ultimately for a studio that is making unappealing games and not regularly enough. You can't blame a studio that makes a Gravity Rush sequel that was getting 9s and then complain that it didn't sell well. The person who greenlit that game is the problem. Jim Ryan is responsible for the restructure. Giving the Astro Bot team their own studio was a great idea. It could be too early to judge if there is actually a plan to rebuild Japan studio to make games that have more general appeal, but the right thing to do for the brand would have been to rebuild Japan Studio with better oversight to make sure they are making the right games.

The supposed endless font of talent sat at Bungie, has ONE legitimate franchise. They are then paid huge incentives to stay on board. This clearly means that there were plans for the team to leave either because of not wanting to be under Sony's umbrella or (more likely) just not wanting to be under anyone's umbrella.

Why would Sony want to bribe people to stay at the company? They will eventually leave if they want to.

Also, I really think I'm I missing something! Nobody was talking about how wonderful and talented Bungie were until the acquisition was announced. Now people are acting like they invented the FPS!

@themightyant I still don't think that Sony have effectively filled the gap of Japanese games. Japan are still making some of the very best games, but probably because they are actually good games, they aren't mainstream enough for Sony's liking. Why weren't Sony competing for the signature of Nagoshi and giving him his own Sony studio? Sony have a good relationship with Kojima Studio, but it is on a game by game basis. Then they are close with Square. What I see as sorely lacking is games set in modern-day real-world Japan. Yakuza and Judgment have such huge potential for Sony to come in and fund the games and give them more time to develop as well as providing the Sony know how to fix some of the issues of the games that make them a little bit too obtuse (why are they not fully voiced, why are tutorials so tedious, etc.?). Japanese dramas would make such great games.

@AdamNovice this. Such strange takes. We have no idea what agreements other workers have. All this drama creating out of nothing is bonkers. This is business.

The negative spin on this particular piece is actually disgraceful. Yikes
Misinformed biased spin again. PushSpin it is now haha
I don’t care and I don’t care about Bungie, I just say what I think. I only care about facts.
🤷🏼‍♂️

Once again it’s interesting how facts can be altered in peoples minds just giving them from a biased perspective. Fascinating.

To summaries I read this somewhere and I'm agree 1000% "So basically Sony is making moves to create new cutting edge games and support their already great catalog. Microsoft says we can’t dev em. Let’s just by some awesome studios. If we can’t make them buy them."

@OneWingedAngel Im just saying you can be negative towards a company you support. I'm a avid gamer on all platforms and I just call out annoying fanboyism when I see it. Recently learned there was a sister site that is just Xbox and fanboys over there are just as bad . I just think console fighting is just stupid and we shouldn't have "affection" towards any of these companies. Look at Nintendo, they treat their fans like trash 💀 Sony and Microsoft will at any chance too.

@BoldAndBrash you do realize how off base your petition is? The petition says he’s only out to make money, please point to a business that isn’t out to make money…..I’ll wait. Also, it says he doesn’t want to expand the fan base???? What do you think the move to PC does? Anyone that bought God of War on PC and wants the sequel with our waiting a few years needs to buy a PlayStation….thus expanding the fan base and community. The only one out of touch is you my friend.

@themightyant unfortunately most of Japan Studio staff was not retained. You are correct about them reforming into Asobi but sadly so many lost their jobs.

@Envy
I agree with you on that. Fanboyism is stupid and I don't want any side bashing and sabotaging the others. I would have bought all platforms as well if I could but I live in Pakistan where per capita income per month is $120. I earn barely $400 per month and have 3 kids. How can I possibly buy all platforms, pay for their subscriptions, buy games, and buy accessories with that much money? I am barely managing to own one console. I grew up with Playstation and JRPGs so I just stuck with it.

@shafedog247
Short term money...
And no I did not know businesses are out to make money. Completely flew past me.
Also, how do you think Sony got to this point? By only having multiplatform games? Do you think PS3 eventually won even after the rough start because of its multiplats?
It's all exclusives, track record, lineup, history, etc.

"Why do I need a PS5 if it'll come to PC eventually anyway? I'll wait and play it on ***** laptop that can't even handle it"
That's ruining a reputation if you ask me. Have you seen the GOW mods?
That's the reason why care companies don't want their cars to be in some games where they're damageable. It's a bad look

@BoldAndBrash well if Sony didn’t tank when they put PS Now on PC in 2016, then releasing a few exclusives (which PS Now also had) isn’t going to bring them down. The idea is to draw them into the console ecosystem. Short term money as you call it, leads to long term return on investments. And I’m pretty sure they are playing the long game.

Sammy always has to find something to cry about. Employee retention bonuses are completely normal and considering the vast size of Bungie as a studio, there is nothing strange about this. Educate yourself before whining.

@get2sammyb You talk like Sony is strict on other studio's? Im sorry but where are you getting this from?

From a Killzone to a Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us 2 didnt really make the comfortzone of a lot people. The game that was no real triple A game and not worth the full price Returnal.

I never had the idea that Sony was on the back of Studio's. Lately i see this site putting a negative spin on everything its getting old fast.

It's a very common thing when a corporate takes over a smaller company. It's to incentivise the existing management and staff to continue making the same effort that made the company worth buying in the first place.