SONY’s Adam Boyes recently spoke out about how the PlayStation brand successfully acquired the new Call of Duty’s DLC exclusivity deal away from the Xbox. Ultimately, it all goes back to Bungie.
It was announced at this year’s E3 that PlayStation 4 users can look forward to hands on access of Black Ops III’s DLC and its multiplayer beta before anyone else – a feat traditionally held by Microsoft. So how did this all come to be? When asked about the SONY/Activision partnership, Boyes had this to say.
“Well, I think the first thing was we’ve had a great relationship with Activision around Destiny. And I’m a huge fan of that.”
Do you see where this is going? Destiny is a huge title published by Activision, but of course it was developed by Bungie – the studio most commonly attributed to the Halo franchise. After finishing work on Halo Reach, Bungie decided it was time to depart with the Master Chief and co. Halo has always been the biggest IP for Microsoft; the franchise that gave the Xbox and the Xbox 360 its identity.
Nevertheless, Bungie parted ways with Halo as 343 Industries took the helm on the beloved series. Whether or not they’ve been successful is a topic for another day, but Halo 4 was not particularly impressive to me and I am struggling to be excited by Halo 5, no matter how much marketing Microsoft is pushing for the game.
Long story short, Bungie decided to seek pastures new in Destiny. Given the huge sum of money invested into the project, Destiny was not the game that many gamers and critics expected or hoped it would be. More importantly however, Bungie had made a multiplatform game published by Activision. This allowed SONY to interact with Activision even more than before, hence the console manufacturer has finally concluded the Black Ops III exclusivity deal.
You could claim that Bungie back-stabbed Microsoft by abandoning the Halo franchise. 343 might be more than capable of handling the IP, but you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t think that the series has lost a touch of its magic. Regardless, the lasting impact has actually been greater than that. If Bungie abandoning the Halo franchise dealt the devastating damage, SONY securing Black Ops III’s exclusivity deal by working with Activision over Destiny is rubbing salt in the wounds.
