Disney Takes a Bungie Jump with Wideload

By Geoff Duncan September 8, 2009

Disney Interactive has announced that it is acquiring small Chicago-based game house Wideload Games…and The House of Mouse swallowing up a small game studio wouldn’t be all that newsworthy until one considers that Disney is getting Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian as part of the deal. For folks who’ve been off fighting aliens on another planet for the last several years, Seropian was one of the creators of games like Marathon, Myth, and the wildly successful Halo franchise. Seropian will come on board at Disney Interactive as the group’s newly-minted “vice president of creative,” and the acquisition marks Disney’s latest effort to move beyond a video game business based on media properties like Hannah Montana, Pixar films, and Kim Possible and into major-league territory in the console game arena.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“Joining Disney is an ideal next step, both for our studio and me,” Seropian said in a statement. “At Wideload, we’ve conscientiously built a forward-looking approach to game development that borrows many techniques from the film industry. Now, Wideload will be a part of one of the largest, most respected entertainment companies in the world.”

Seropian left Bungie to found Wideload in 2004; in 2007, Bungie broke loose from Microsoft, although the company continues to work on the Halo franchise and Xbox 360 titles.

The Wideload acquisition follows Disney’s hiring of famed game developer Warren Spector (creator of Deus X) back in 2007, and the company’s announced plans to acquire super-hero house Marvel Entertainment, which would bring major franchises like Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the X-Men under the Disney umbrella.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Gaming

Sony will launch 10 live service games with Bungie’s help

Hive Guardians created by the Witch Queen Savathun

Hot off the heels of announcing its intent to acquire Bungie, Sony already has some grand ambitions for its move into the live service space. In an investor call, the company stated that it plans to launch at least 10 live service games over the course of the next four years, by March 31, 2026.

Sony's plan to forcefully move towards live service games is grand but will be aided, at least in part, by Bungie. "The strategic significance of this acquisition lies not only in obtaining the highly successful Destiny franchise," said Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki," as well as a major new IP that Bungie is currently developing, but also in incorporating into the Sony Group the expertise and technology that Bungie has developed in the live game services space."

Gaming

With Bungie purchase, Sony is playing on Microsoft’s level

Destiny 2 character in gold armor holds and gun while looking toward the camera.

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced its intended $3.6 billion acquisition of Destiny developer Bungie on January 31. Less than two weeks after Microsoft's bombshell announcement of its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard, Sony responded by showing that it's willing to compete when it comes to spending lots of money to acquire popular developers. On top of that, Sony seemingly plans to keep Bungie a multiplatform studio.
While Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz that "these conversations have been a number of months in gestation, and certainly predate the activity that we have seen this year," it still demonstrates a significant change in Sony's gaming mentality in light of Microsoft's acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard.
For years, Sony focused on maintaining a refined and exclusive ecosystem of games and studios, but Microsoft's flurry of acquisitions over the past couple of years pushed Sony out of that comfort zone. After several smaller purchases, Sony has finally indicated that it's ready and willing to play on Microsoft's level and will do whatever it takes to stay on top in the gaming industry.

Taking a king
Sony's Bungie acquisition is just as symbolic as it is sensible from a competitive standpoint. Bungie used to be owned by Microsoft and created its biggest franchise, Halo. It split off to gain independence in 2007 and stayed that way for some time despite close partnerships with Activision and Google.
While it currently seems like Bungie will remain an independent and multiplatform studio, this is still a show of force by Sony. This acquisition means Microsoft can never truly get the developer who made Halo back and gives Sony a presence on Xbox platforms that extends beyond MLB The Show.
And as Ampere Analysis analyst Piers Harding-Rolls pointed out on Twitter, it also prepares Sony for potentially losing Call of Duty by giving it a first-party shooter game that's consistently updated as a live service. Of course, this isn't as direct of a response to the Activision Blizzard acquisition as it may initially seem, as this deal was in the works well before Microsoft's January 18 announcement.
The Bethesda acquisition is likely the deal that spurred Sony to acquire Bungie. Still, the Activision Blizzard deal affirmed why Sony had to make that move in the first place. Currently, the video game industry is on an acquisition spree from the top-down. Microsoft is one of the studio's leading the charge with the biggest and boldest deals.
While Sony may not have as much money to throw around, it still made plenty of smaller acquisitions, like Bluepoint, before the Bungie deal. Sony knows it needs to acquire studios and grow to stay competitive, and this is its first move to indicate that its willing to spend billions. The Bungie deal sends a clear message to Microsoft that Sony is still relevant and a force to be reckoned with.
What's mine is yours
That's not the only message Sony is sending either. It's also playing platform-exclusivity mind games. One of the most nebulous topics of debate with Microsoft's Bethesda and Activision announcements is whether or not the games from acquired studios would be exclusive to Xbox. Microsoft's current approach is to honor existing deals and keep multiplayer titles supported across platforms, but make brand new games like Starfield and Redfall into Xbox console exclusives that will also come to PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming. With Bungie, Sony seems to not be worried about exclusivity for once.
In the past, Sony has always wanted to keep its first-party games on PlayStation for as long as possible. Only recently has it chosen to port games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and God of War to PC and been forced to put MLB The Show on competing platforms. But from the get-go, Sony's messaging is that it's OK with Bungie staying creatively independent and multiplatform.

Gaming

Here’s what Sony’s Bungie deal means for Destiny

Guardians from Destiny 2

Sony is in the process of acquiring Bungie, and while that's a pretty big deal for the games industry, anyone who doesn't play Bungie's games may not have much of a reason to care. For Destiny players though, the acquisition throws the franchise's entire future into the air. Previous acquisitions, like Microsoft's purchase of ZeniMax Media, have led to franchises that used to be cross-platform becoming platform exclusives.

So, what does Bungie's acquisition mean for the Destiny franchise and the game's fans? Let's break it down.
Is the Destiny franchise moving off Xbox?
Executives from both sides of this deal -- Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan and Bungie CEO Pete Parsons -- have stated that the Destiny games won't suddenly become PlayStation exclusives.