Sony to buy Bungie, developer of the original Halo games, for $3.6 billion

After Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Sony has made a major video game purchase of its own.

Sony announced Monday it's acquiring Bungie, the video game developer behind the popular Destiny series, for $3.6 billion. Bungie is also known for developing the original Halo games, which were available on Microsoft's Xbox but not Sony's PlayStation, though that series has since moved to 343 Industries. Microsoft owned Bungie until 2007.

"This is an important step in our strategy to expand the reach of PlayStation to a much wider audience," Sony Interactive Entertainment President Jim Ryan said. "We understand how vital Bungie's community is to the studio and look forward to supporting them as they remain independent and continue to grow."

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The news comes after several major acquisitions from Sony's competitor Microsoft, which most recently announced it would purchase World of Warcraft and Call of Duty developer Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Microsoft also acquired the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, publisher of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, for $7.5 billion. A key component of Microsoft's strategy in recent years has been growing the library of Game Pass, its Netflix-style gaming subscription service.

Bungie CEO Pete Parsons on Monday described Sony as a partner that "fully supports" its vision and values its "creative independence." Despite being purchased by Sony, Bungie said the games it currently has in development won't become PlayStation exclusives, though it didn't specifically say that they'll be available on Xbox. Bungie's Destiny 2 is currently available on both PlayStation and Xbox.

"Bungie's commitment to cross-platform play and social features remains unchanged," Bungie said. "We believe games are best shared with friends, wherever they choose to play, and will continue to invest in new features and platforms."

Bungie also assured players the new Destiny 2 expansion ​​The Witch Queen, set to be released in February, won't have content exclusive to one platform.