PlayStation "Overpaid For Bungie Out of Desperation," Analyst Believes

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Industry analyst Michael Pachter believes PlayStation "vastly overpaid" to acquire Destiny creator Bungie. Earlier this week, Sony announced its acquisition of Bungie in a move that surprised every corner of the gaming industry. The former paid $3.6 billion for the latter, but maintains that the Destiny group will continue to independently develop and publish its current and future projects.

This deal marks a peculiar one for Sony in that, according to both entities, none of Bungie's titles will launch exclusively on PlayStation consoles. It seems a smart move in general, given the revenue stream that Destiny generates yearly across all platforms combined. Sony Interactive Entertainment President and CEO Jim Ryan noted in interviews following the acquisition's announcement that the PlayStation brand is most interested in Bungie's live service expertise. This admission came as a surprise due to PlayStation's focus on narrative-driven single-player experiences in the last several years. However, the company is making an effort to increase its foothold on the multiplayer market. With Bungie's help, Sony could indeed make a name for itself in a space that it arguably ceded to Microsoft long ago.

Related: Xbox's Phil Spencer Thinks Microsoft Could Have Kept Halo Dev Bungie

In discussing Sony's Bungie acquisition with Yahoo Finance (via PSU), Wedbush Securities Managing Director of Equity Research Michael Pachter said the deal bore too costly of a price tag. "I think Sony vastly overpaid," the analyst told Yahoo Finance, arguing the numbers don't add up when considering that Bungie generates $200 million in yearly revenue on average. By comparison, EA purchased Titanfall creator Respawn Entertainment in 2017 for over $400