Sony spends $3.6 billion to buy video game maker Halo

 Sony spends $3.6 billion to buy video game maker Halo

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced the acquisition of Bungie Inc, the makers of Halo and Destiny games in a deal worth $3.6 billion.

The information was announced by Sony shortly after two major deals including: Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, the maker of Call of Duty games for $ 69 million and Take Two Interactive reached an agreement worth $ 11 billion to buy Zynga, a single Farmville game producer.

Following the acquisition agreement, Bungie will operate as a unit under Sony. However, Bungie operates independently and has full rights to publish games on any platform they want.

In a press release, Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (a subsidiary of Sony Group Corp, the developer of PlayStation) said, this is an important step in the strategy to expand the scope. PlayStation's micro-reach to a wider audience.

Sony and Bungie did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Washington-based Bungie is the company behind the multiplayer shooting games Destiny and Halo. This developer was acquired by Microsoft in 2000. However, in 2007, Bungie split from Microsoft and stopped producing Halo 3 years later. Since 2011, Halo has been developed by 343 Industries, a company owned by Microsoft.

In addition to "Halo", Bungie is also known for developing a number of popular games including Marathon and Myth.

Thus, in the near future, Bungie will become part of Microsoft's biggest competitor in the gaming console market. Bungie's most popular current game is Destiny 2, which is available on multiple platforms, including Xbox and Sony's PlayStation.