Post
The studio that built Xbox with Halo, sold itself to Activision, escaped, and got bought by Sony for $3.6B.
Founded in 1991 in Chicago, Bungie made Marathon for Mac, then was acquired by Microsoft in 2000 to build Halo: Combat Evolved as the Xbox launch title — the game that carried the platform. Bungie split from Microsoft in 2007, signed a 10-year publishing deal with Activision, and shipped Destiny (2014) and Destiny 2 (2017) as their swing at live-service shooters. Bought out of the Activision deal in 2019, then acquired by Sony in 2022 for $3.6B as a 'live-service expertise' beachhead. The studio has since had multiple rounds of layoffs and seen its standalone PVP project Marathon delayed and reshaped repeatedly.
Example
Destiny 2's expansion The Final Shape (2024) closed the decade-long 'Light and Darkness' saga — a narrative arc most live-service games never sustain. The expansion was widely praised; the post-launch period was rocky and ended in major staff cuts.
Why it matters
Bungie is the live-service shooter studio. Its talent diaspora staffs every other live-service team in the industry. The 2022 Sony acquisition tested whether 'live-service expertise' can be transplanted as a service offering — and the early returns are mixed.
Related concepts