It appears that Sony sees much potential in Bungie. Specifically: in their video games. Even more specifically: in their potential to be great movies.
Bungie: The Multi-Media Franchise?
Following Sony’s announcement that they were acquiring Bungie to the tune of $3.6 billion USD, IGN announced that Sony’s plans for the developer responsible for Halo and Destiny are more ambitious than we had thought. It seems that Sony just had an earnings call with Bungie in which Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki asked not how Sony could benefit from the developer, but how the developer could benefit from Sony. Specifically, in the area outside of video games. To quote from IGN:
“[It’s] not just for [the] gaming area, but the multi-using of IP and merchandising of IP – like a game title maybe put into movies. Bungie want to nurture the IP they have in a multi-dimensional manner, and that’s their hope. For that, we believe we can help that – we have [Sony] Pictures and [Sony] Music, and Bungie can leverage our platform so that their IP can flourish and grow big.”
Hiroki Totoki, CFO, Sony
Destiny: The Movie?
Considering that there’s already a Halo TV series about to launch, it’d be a bit redundant for Bungie to hop on that bandwagon. Thus, a Destiny film or TV series seems the most likely at this point. This is funny because Bungie had originally been working on a Destiny multi-media project even long before Sony bought them. According to IGN back in September 2021, Bungie revealed that they were hiring for a new senior executive who would help them bring Destiny to “the world of film, TV, and more”. So Destiny seems to be the most likely film option here, but…there is another. Does anyone remember Marathon?
Marathon was one of Bungie’s first FPS games, their first to feature an extremely detailed and immersive sci-fi story, and their first really major commercial success. When the game launched back in December 1994, it managed 150,000 sales by the time October 1995 rolled around. The game was so successful that it spawned a trilogy in the form of Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity. You know, like a certain other Bungie sci-fi FPS game series called Halo. In fact, the Marathon trilogy is widely considered to be Halo‘s spiritual predecessor. Unfortunately, a Marathon TV series is just pure speculation at this time. Take it with as many grains of salt as you like unless we hear otherwise from either Sony or Bungie.
Source: IGN, Sony Group Corporation, IGN,
