PlayStation poor acquisition targets & seemingly directionless as a platform/storefront holder

[Neversummer]

I wanted to make a thread more of a discussion if anyone else felt like looking back at the acquisition Sony made for PS somewhere valued at 5 billion spent in the past 4 years, most of its targets has either fully imploded/slightly imploded or yet to prove themselves if there game will even be quality.

This came to my mind w now hearing rumor of Sony being interested in buying Gearbox (umm really out of all studios Gearbox?) I mean where do I start the studio who’s ceo is know to have pdf the studio thats been in limbo for over 10 years Gearbox last hit was Borderlands 1/2 which was 10+ years ago probably somewhere around 15 years. The borderlands ip itself been in limbo w Tiny Tina not holding long term engagement & overall being a flop in the franchise atleast from the perspective of fans.



I truly hope this rumor is fake even if just a rumor it’s embarrassing seriously Sony acquisition target seem so questionable & makes me question PS as a platform & I’m starting to think Sony/PS is out of touch not only w gaming but it’s gaming platform. PS seems to lack direction, is the future of PS just a time exclusive first party console? If so It won’t be long before I fully invest to other platforms (PC/Steam & Nintendo) because this isn’t the PS I grew up & loved PS magic has been stripped since the beginning the PS5 generation (also a lack of good exciting showcases also makes it more damming) I would not be surprised if Kadokawa/Fromsoft, Square Enix, Arc System, Level 5, Shift up, Hoyoverse gets scooped up by the likes of Tencent, Net ease, MS, Saudis, Apple, Google, Amazon etc & Sony has a pickachu shock face from obvious acquisition targets

PS acquisition or investment that seemingly didn’t go smoothly, imploded or on a limbo state till they release games. Bungie, FireSprite, Firewalk, Neon Koi. Investment Deviation, London Studio I may be forgetting other but man Sony has wasted so much $ on a bunch of investment that just took a u turn or imploded on itself & needs further investment & time to “fix”

 

[Gediminas]

it is not true. Borderlands in limbo? what are you smoking? Wonderlands also was taken very positively as side project.

Borderlands 3 sold gazilion copies and Borderlands 4 is in production, there is no limbo.

and no Sony wasn't interesting, as per Sony themselves, they had no interest to purchase anyone at least till 2025 as they have no funds to do it.

 

[shrike0fth0rns]

I wanted to make a thread more of a discussion if anyone else felt like looking back at the acquisition Sony made for PS somewhere valued at 5 billion spent in the past 4 years, most of its targets has either fully imploded/slightly imploded or yet to prove themselves if there game will even be quality.

This came to my mind w now hearing rumor of Sony being interested in buying Gearbox (umm really out of all studios Gearbox?) I mean where do I start the studio who’s ceo is know to have pdf the studio thats been in limbo for over 10 years Gearbox last hit was Borderlands 1/2 which was 10+ years ago probably somewhere around 15 years. The borderlands ip itself been in limbo w Tiny Tina not holding long term engagement & overall being a flop in the franchise atleast from the perspective of fans.



I truly hope this rumor is fake even if just a rumor it’s embarrassing seriously Sony acquisition target seem so questionable & makes me question PS as a platform & I’m starting to think Sony/PS is out of touch not only w gaming but it’s gaming platform. PS seems to lack direction, is the future of PS just a time exclusive first party console? If so It won’t be long before I fully invest to other platforms (PC/Steam & Nintendo) because this isn’t the PS I grew up & loved PS magic has been stripped since the beginning the PS5 generation (also a lack of good exciting showcases also makes it more damming) I would not be surprised if Kadokawa/Fromsoft, Square Enix, Arc System, Level 5, Shift up, Hoyoverse gets scooped up by the likes of Tencent, Net ease, MS, Saudis, Apple, Google, Amazon etc & Sony has a pickachu shock face from obvious acquisition targets

PS acquisition or investment that seemingly didn’t go smoothly, imploded or on a limbo state till they release games. Bungie, FireSprite, Firewalk, Neon Koi. Investment Deviation, London Studio I may be forgetting other but man Sony has wasted so much $ on a bunch of investment that just took a u turn or imploded on itself & needs further investment & time to “fix”

so u are responding to an unconfirmed rumor supported by no actual evidence. Ps has an m&a team it’s their job took look at possiblities. I’m sure they have files of dozens of studios which they access for m&a because that’s their job. It doesn’t mean anything thing. Just look at all the studios Microsoft consider for m&a, it was most of the major publishers in and mid level and even well known Indy devs in the industry and they ended up buying almost nothing in that list. U guys don’t need to react to everything. It’s just another rumor and even if they were interested and bought gearbox they wouldn’t have kept Randy as ceo. He doesn’t fit it with ps culture. I don’t really like gear bocks but they are more worth while than most of the things Embracer owns which is a lot of junk that doesn’t make any money. The worse thing about the last 2 gens of gaming is the emergency of gamers turning into arm chair CEOs. Gamers constantly criticizing every decision made and when it turns out to be a good thing they pretend to have supported the idea all along. I just know when marathon is released, ND next game, Havens game, ps5 pro is a huge success ppl are going to be lining up to pretend they were supportive from the beginning and how everything ps does is a W

 

[JAHGamer]

I mean where do I start the studio who’s ceo is know to have pdf

Wait what does this mean? The studio ceo is a pedophile?? or something else? I just learned new internet slang that pdf file = pedophile. Please tell me you meant something else

 

[JAHGamer]

PS acquisition or investment that seemingly didn’t go smoothly, imploded or on a limbo state till they release games. Bungie, FireSprite, Firewalk, Neon Koi. Investment Deviation, London Studio I may be forgetting other but man Sony has wasted so much $ on a bunch of investment that just took a u turn or imploded on itself & needs further investment & time to “fix”

I agree with your overall message though, Sony's acquisitions this generation have been abysmal. With Bungie being the worst by far. Haven being acquired before they even released a game is a joke.

The only good moves they've made this gen is Housemarque and Bluepoint. They need to make a move for Ember Lab before Tencent does.

 

[Batzy]

Sure they did and they tried to buy EA.

 

[Yurinka]

I wanted to make a thread more of a discussion if anyone else felt like looking back at the acquisition Sony made for PS somewhere valued at 5 billion spent in the past 4 years, most of its targets has either fully imploded/slightly imploded or yet to prove themselves if there game will even be quality.

This came to my mind w now hearing rumor of Sony being interested in buying Gearbox (umm really out of all studios Gearbox?) I mean where do I start the studio who’s ceo is know to have pdf the studio thats been in limbo for over 10 years Gearbox last hit was Borderlands 1/2 which was 10+ years ago probably somewhere around 15 years. The borderlands ip itself been in limbo w Tiny Tina not holding long term engagement & overall being a flop in the franchise atleast from the perspective of fans.



I truly hope this rumor is fake even if just a rumor it’s embarrassing seriously Sony acquisition target seem so questionable & makes me question PS as a platform & I’m starting to think Sony/PS is out of touch not only w gaming but it’s gaming platform. PS seems to lack direction, is the future of PS just a time exclusive first party console? If so It won’t be long before I fully invest to other platforms (PC/Steam & Nintendo) because this isn’t the PS I grew up & loved PS magic has been stripped since the beginning the PS5 generation (also a lack of good exciting showcases also makes it more damming) I would not be surprised if Kadokawa/Fromsoft, Square Enix, Arc System, Level 5, Shift up, Hoyoverse gets scooped up by the likes of Tencent, Net ease, MS, Saudis, Apple, Google, Amazon etc & Sony has a pickachu shock face from obvious acquisition targets

PS acquisition or investment that seemingly didn’t go smoothly, imploded or on a limbo state till they release games. Bungie, FireSprite, Firewalk, Neon Koi. Investment Deviation, London Studio I may be forgetting other but man Sony has wasted so much $ on a bunch of investment that just took a u turn or imploded on itself & needs further investment & time to “fix”

This "Sony interesed to acquire Gearbox" is fake news. SIE said they won't make acquisitions in the mid term, have no budget to make such acquisition, recently shut down studios and fired like 1000 people because need to reduce costs.

Speculating, if Sony would make an exception and make an acquisition very likely would be Arrowhead. We saw them acquiring Housemarque or Demon's Souls soon after releasing Demon's Souls or Returnal. Maybe they had a deal where if reaching certain number they'd get acquired, and if it was the case, maybe had a similar one with Helldivers 2/Arrowhead.

Regarding acquisitions made in the last 4 years or less, I think it's stupid to say if they were worh or not because they make AAA games and nowadays they take around 5-9 years to be made, so it's too early. Let these studios enough time to release at least a game or two before saying if they did a good job or not.

Regarding their expansion to also cover GaaS, it's because GaaS have been growing during years and became the main gaming revenue source, while revenue from selling games is decreasing. Meaning that getting stuck in SP only AAA games, specially locked to a single console they'd commit suicide. Specially because AAA every generation are more expensive to make and this generation will go in many cases over 300M, which means around 10M units sold to become profitable. Something not realistic for many of their AAA games. So to open their games to additional markets are needed to pay such games and make sure they are profitable and safer, they need to grow.

PC has a size similar to the console market, and mobile represents around half of the gaming market. Meaning, that expanding to PC and mobile they can grow a lot. As they are currently doing.

This is the reason of why all AAA publishers (not only Sony) are investing more on GaaS, PC and mobile for several years. Not only Sony. Basically because they know that getting stuck making only SP AAA games for a single console would be a suicide in the long term.

 

[Bryank75]

I wouldn't want them to buy Gearbox anyway, it's ideal that they are now with Taketwo as Sony are on great terms with them.

Sony's acquisition strategy and timing has been pretty atrocious.... Microsoft bought many things before prices exploded into the stratosphere and Sony took so long to respond or realize what was happening that they bough everything except Insomniac at a greatly inflated price....

Heaven, Firesprite and Nixxes were complete wastes if they were focused on PS console growth...

Years ago, they should have retained their stake of Square and bought more over time. They should have bought studios in lower cost locations with lots of talent... Korea / Japan etc.

I still maintain that Bungie is a good buy, it was too expensive but it's still very valuable... they have the best shooter gameplay and great creativity. They have issues...we all know that, mostly at management level but I think that can be fixed.

 

[Yurinka]

SIE gaming acquisition in the last 5 years:

• Insomniac: I think nobody has doubts it was worth it, great job
• Housemarque: great legacy but still haven't released their first game, still too early to see results
• Nixxes: makes great PC ports that generate hundreds of millions per year, great job
• Firesprite+Fabrik: Developed Horizon CoM, maybe the best looking PSVR2 game, great job
• Valkyrie: did support work on GoWR, great job
• Bluepoint: great legacy and did support work on GoWR, great job
• Bungie: they generate over $200M outside PS per year with a 8 years old game. Supports other GaaS like Helldivers 2. They still have to release their first game, still too early to see results
• Haven: still haven't released their first game, still too early to see results
• Neon Koi: still haven't released their first game, still too early to see results
• Firewalk: release their first game later this year, still too early to see results

SIE non-gamedev acquisitions in the last 5 years:

• EVO: the most important fighting games tournament, now a big PS ad, improved the tournament being praised by he community. Great job
• Repeat.gg: implemented PlayStation Tournament stuff plus extra stuff on their page
• Audeze: made the great audio tech in recent headsets. Great job
• iSIZE: image reconstruction/supersampling tech. May be used in PS cloud gaming or in Sony's upcoming own take on DLSS implementation. Maybe also improve image quality in PS5 video/movie apps ro video in-game cutscens. I assume we still have to see their results.

Non-SIE Sony gaming acquisitions:

• Audeze: not from SIE, but Sony Music instead. They developed a mobile game for Sony that generated several billions before the acquisition. Japan/Asia focused, I'd bet they haven't released a new game since acquisition. So I'd say good job/great legacy or too early.

I'd say all of them are either good acquisitions or it's too early to see if it was a good or bad deal.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

SIE gaming acquisition in the last 5 years:

• Insomniac: I think nobody has doubts it was worth it, great job
• Housemarque: great legacy but still haven't released their first game, still too early to see results
• Nixxes: makes great PC ports that generate hundreds of millions per year, great job
• Firesprite+Fabrik: Developed Horizon CoM, maybe the best looking PSVR2 game, great job
• Valkyrie: did support work on GoWR, great job
• Bluepoint: great legacy and did support work on GoWR, great job
• Bungie: they generate over $200M outside PS per year with a 8 years old game. Supports other GaaS like Helldivers 2. They still have to release their first game, still too early to see results
• Haven: still haven't released their first game, still too early to see results
• Neon Koi: still haven't released their first game, still too early to see results
• Firewalk: release their first game later this year, still too early to see results

SIE non-gamedev acquisitions in the last 5 years:

• EVO: the most important fighting games tournament, now a big PS ad, improved the tournament being praised by he community. Great job
• Repeat.gg: implemented PlayStation Tournament stuff plus extra stuff on their page
• Audeze: made the great audio tech in recent headsets. Great job
• iSIZE: image reconstruction/supersampling tech. May be used in PS cloud gaming or in Sony's upcoming own take on DLSS implementation. Maybe also improve image quality in PS5 video/movie apps ro video in-game cutscens. I assume we still have to see their results.

Non-SIE Sony gaming acquisitions:

• Audeze: not from SIE, but Sony Music instead. They developed a mobile game for Sony that generated several billions before the acquisition. Japan/Asia focused, I'd bet they haven't released a new game since acquisition. So I'd say good job/great legacy or too early.

I'd say all of them are either good acquisitions or it's too early to see if it was a good or bad deal.

Insomniac: Yeah
Housemarque: Uh, Returnal?
Nixxes: Ports barely pulled in $100 million FY '22, and most recent ports have been low sellers
Firesprite: Prob won't be doing anything else with PSVR2 going forward
Valkyrie: Yeah
Bluepoint: Yeah
Bungie: Decent so far but still need to prove themselves with new games post-acquisition
Haven: Yep
Neon Koi: Yep
Firewalk: Yep

I'm only interested in the game development M&As and I'd say at best only 30% have solidly "proven" their worth so far in the grand scheme of things. Those being Insomniac, Housemarque, and Bluepoint. Straddlers are Nixxes, Bungie, Valkyrie and Firesprite. Unknowns still are Haven, Neon Koi, and Firewalk.

We're talking "worth" WRT bringing new gaming experiences to the PS5 (or at least PS4/PS5 cross-gen releases), preferably exclusives (obviously), and in that regard Sony's M&As have been doing a bit better than Microsoft's, but not by a large amount if you're talking absolute numbers. Because with MS I'd argue Playground Games, Obsidian, and Tango Gameworks have delivered. Only thing with MS is all their games are Day 1 on PC so those games don't do too much for pushing the Xbox console.

 

[anonpuffs]

Insomniac: Yeah
Housemarque: Uh, Returnal?
Nixxes: Ports barely pulled in $100 million FY '22, and most recent ports have been low sellers
Firesprite: Prob won't be doing anything else with PSVR2 going forward
Valkyrie: Yeah
Bluepoint: Yeah
Bungie: Decent so far but still need to prove themselves with new games post-acquisition
Haven: Yep
Neon Koi: Yep
Firewalk: Yep

I'm only interested in the game development M&As and I'd say at best only 30% have solidly "proven" their worth so far in the grand scheme of things. Those being Insomniac, Housemarque, and Bluepoint. Straddlers are Nixxes, Bungie, Valkyrie and Firesprite. Unknowns still are Haven, Neon Koi, and Firewalk.

We're talking "worth" WRT bringing new gaming experiences to the PS5 (or at least PS4/PS5 cross-gen releases), preferably exclusives (obviously), and in that regard Sony's M&As have been doing a bit better than Microsoft's, but not by a large amount if you're talking absolute numbers. Because with MS I'd argue Playground Games, Obsidian, and Tango Gameworks have delivered. Only thing with MS is all their games are Day 1 on PC so those games don't do too much for pushing the Xbox console.

Even though Nixxes' ports haven't sold that well they are regarded as top tier in the pc porting business due to how high quality the ports are. They are a very good studio in their own right.

 

[JAHGamer]

Even though Nixxes' ports haven't sold that well they are regarded as top tier in the pc porting business due to how high quality the ports are. They are a very good studio in their own right.

Being the best at porting games is like being the best McDonalds employee Preparing already cooked food isn't impressive.

And none of their ports are really that good, they simply function as expected, which these days is rare for PC ports. HFW, Rift Apart, Spider-Man, are barely better than the console versions and require a ton more power for slightly improved results.

The best Sony port this gen has been Returnal by far, there's actual significant and noticeable differences between the PS/PC version. And it wasn't even done by Nixxes

 

[Yurinka]

Housemarque: Uh, Returnal?

It was great, I didn't count it because they released it before the acquisititon

Nixxes: Ports barely pulled in $100 million FY '22, and most recent ports have b-een low sellers

According to Sony they did $250M in FY22 when counting also Destiny since their acquisition in summer. As "other software", this is also adding Bungie for the whole month plus Bungie+MLB in rival consoles they did $447.5M in FY22.

This "other software" is the only PC ports related data for FY23, and in the 3 first quarters already did more money than in FY22. Obviously with Helldivers 2 this FY23 they'll make much more in Q4 YoY too. Very likely they'll achieve way more than their estimated $450M in PC revenue for FY23.

In any case, all the Nixxes projects for Sony have been profitable. Something that oher studios Sony has or had can't say.

Firesprite: Prob won't be doing anything else with PSVR2 going forward

We don't know if the -minimum- two projects they have under development (since before they released Horizon CoM) use VR or not. And obviously who knows they'll do next after these 2+ games under development.

Bungie: Decent so far but still need to prove themselves with new games post-acquisition

Yes. As of now from this game we only got a teaser, which broke records in Youtube.

nly 30% have solidly "proven" their worth

Unknowns still are Haven, Neon Koi, and Firewalk.

Key people at Haven have broken gaming history sales records for a new AAA IP, and worked in many top performing AAA games at Ubisoft, including GaaS.
Firewalk same being mainly ex-Bungie and ex-Activision Blizzard and other top studios.
Neon Koi came from top mobile companies like Supercell or Rovio, plus top console/PC studios like Rockstar or Wargaming.

They have to prove their value with Sony published games, but as devs have nothing to prove, they have a top tier pedrigree.

We're talking "worth" WRT bringing new gaming experiences to the PS5 (or at least PS4/PS5 cross-gen releases), preferably exclusives (obviously), and in that regard Sony's M&As have been doing a bit better than Microsoft's, but not by a large amount if you're talking absolute numbers. Because with MS I'd argue Playground Games, Obsidian, and Tango Gameworks have delivered. Only thing with MS is all their games are Day 1 on PC so those games don't do too much for pushing the Xbox console.

It's stupid to ask results to studios bought like a couple years ago. AAA games take way more years to be made.

 

[TigerFang]

Please Sony, Focus on Japan. I want a studio or two from there making high quality single player games.

Or buy multiple studios and focus on building a big openworld RPG, to the likes of Elder Scrolls and Witcher.

I also hope to see sony focus on Single Player games, even though I am excited for Concord and Marathon after how satisfying Helldivers is.

 

[Would_you_kindly]

They'd be thick AF not to make a pc Storefront if they insist on releasing their games on pc

 

[anonpuffs]

Please Sony, Focus on Japan. I want a studio or two from there making high quality single player games.

Or buy multiple studios and focus on building a big openworld RPG, to the likes of Elder Scrolls and Witcher.

I also hope to see sony focus on Single Player games, even though I am excited for Concord and Marathon after how satisfying Helldivers is.

What they need to do is hire some game directors, combat designers, and character designers from japan and have them co-create a game with western devs using their technical chops. Imagine a fromsoft game that looks and runs like horizon forbidden west.

 

[TigerFang]

What they need to do is hire some game directors, combat designers, and character designers from japan and have them co-create a game with western devs using their technical chops. Imagine a fromsoft game that looks and runs like horizon forbidden west.

That's fine as well, the games from all the studios are amazing but, some more Japanese presence is welcome as well.

Looking forward to what the PS studios have to offer definitely.

 

[anonpuffs]

That's fine as well, the games from all the studios are amazing but, some more Japanese presence is welcome as well.

Looking forward to what the PS studios have to offer definitely.

I think i like what they're doing with partnering with 3rd party studios in asia rn, I feel like sony 1st party has too much of a leash put on them by corporate.

 

[mibu no ookami]

Non-SIE Sony gaming acquisitions:

• Audeze: not from SIE, but Sony Music instead. They developed a mobile game for Sony that generated several billions before the acquisition. Japan/Asia focused, I'd bet they haven't released a new game since acquisition. So I'd say good job/great legacy or too early.

Did you mean Lasengle?

I think Firesprite is probably the worst buy so far. I wonder if nostalgia glasses were at work.

Buying Bungie even as a defensive move to prevent Microsoft from buying them and restoring Halo to a predominant franchise would have been worth it. If Sony had bought Bungie before Microsoft there wouldn't be an Xbox in the first place. There's no way you can risk a reunification. Until Destiny, Marathan, and Matter all fail, it'll be entirely too quick to call them a mistake.

People saying Haven or Firewalk was a mistake without seeing what Sony saw in buying them is such a poor take it's laughable, but @JAHGamer is the king of bad takes. It's like saying Sony shouldn't stand up their own studios, which is essentially what they've done here. The money it costs to stand up a studio from scratch vs the unknown amount that Sony bought these studios for is probably not incredibly different.

Sony's hit rate has been incredibly high on their purchases to date. This entire thread is laughable. Can anyone name a company with a better hit rate?

Anyone saying Nixxes wasn't worth it also has no idea what they're talking about. Has been one of Sony's best purchases.

Most of these acquisitions we won't know for sure whether they were good or bad buys for 5-10 years. I certainly wouldn't judge a studio based on only one game, maybe even 2.

Perfect examples are Guerrilla and Sucker Punch.

Their first game as Guerrilla was Shellshock Nam 67. It has a Metacritic grade of a 58. The first Killzone was a 70. They've made an original IP out of Horizon that stands toe to toe with Sony's most successful franchises. They've create the Decima engine that powered Death Stranding.

Sucker Punch struggled to release a real hit game until Ghost of Tsushima, with Sly Cooper and InFamous being pretty middle of the road financially.

Sony Bend really hasn't had a steady trajectory either. They released relatively hit games with Syphon Filter and their PSP games were excellent and well received. Day's Gone wasn't polished, but it sold relatively well. The studio has potential and it is why they haven't been closed yet.

 

[Yurinka]

Did you mean Lasengle?

Lol, yes. I was so sleepy xDD

I meant Lasengle, formerly known as the game division of Delightworks before being acquired by Sony.

I think Firesprite is probably the worst buy so far. I wonder if nostalgia glasses were at work.

Nah, I think Firesprite will be very useful because they are very versatile and flexible and can help the company in many ways. In the past they did work in experiments and tech demos as London Studio or Team Asobi did, so can do this role in future hardware as they did with Playroom or Run Sackboy Run. Firesprite could take now this role to allow Team Asobi focus more on their own games.

They can also do good VR games using popular Sony IPs as did with Horizon CoM, or with their own ones. They can support big games leaded by someone else as did with Star Citizen.

And they are forme people from Psygnosis/Liverpool Studio/XDEV (originally the European XDEV team was inside Liverpool Studio, later got their own office), Evolution Studios/Codemasters EVO/Codemasters Chesire (different names for the same studio) and their satelite studio Big Big, Bizarre Creations and Supermassive Games. Meaning, if needed they can make new Wipeout, Motorstorm, Driveclub, any arcade/combat racing stuff or horror/Until Dawn games or related stuff.

They have that flexibility and different teams, so can adapt to whatever is needed. Something very positive and rare in big companies.

Buying Bungie even as a defensive move to prevent Microsoft from buying them

We have receipts of Sony collaborating with Bungie since before the release of Destiny 1 to make sure they made it multiplatform and that Sony got the marketing rights of the series.

In fact, they did talk with MS and Sony to be their publishers for Destiny, but to do so they both asked to own the IP, something Bungie didn't want so they went with Activision Blizzard publishing the series in the west (and Sony helping publishing the series in Japan in addition to support with marketing).

In the same way, they also mentioned that Sony and Bungie were in conversations for the acquition months before it was agreed and announced in January 2022, before the consolidation madness in the industry went crazy. We have to consider that in early 2021 Bungie announced the expansions of their offices (and "plans to bring at least one new IP to market before 2025") doubling their manpower and opening a new one in Amsterdam (where Guerrilla and Polyphony are).

We also have to remember that Sony was already working on their expansion to GaaS and PC since 2018 or before, and one of main Bungie's roles inside SIE is to help them with this. As an example, Guerrilla hired back the Horizon Online director in 2018. Polyphony was working in GT7 and GT Sport, both GaaS titles. Both have office in Amsterdam. Arrowhead is in Stockholm, under 2 hours from there in airplane, London Studio and Firesprite, also working in GaaS were very close too.

One of the things this Bungie Amsterdam office was announced to do was to work to adapt Bungie IPs to movies or tv shows, an area where later when announcing the acquisition mentioned they were interested to get help from Sony.

So probably when they announced the Bungie expansion in early 2021 already had the acquisition locked and made it thinking on it and spent almost a year negotiating the price, retention bonues, conditions, integrating Bungie in SIE future games roadmap and tv show+film adaptation roadmaps, SIE processes, negotiating with Netease to acquire the totality of their 10% of Bungie etc.