Sony’s $3.6 billion purchase of Destiny 2 developer Bungie is apparently being closely examined by the United States Federal Trade Commission.
This news comes from the team over at The Information, and indicates that Sony’s purchase of Bungie may be set back by at least six months. The FTC is apparently concerned that Sony’s purchase of the company would mean that future games it produces would become PlayStation exclusives.
Bungie has previously denied that it would ever turn its games into PlayStation-exclusive titles. “We want the worlds we are creating to extend to anywhere people play games,” it wrote in a January FAQ. “We will continue to be self-published, creatively independent, and we will continue to drive one, unified Bungie community.”
2022 has been a busy year for the FTC and the video game industry. In January, it began an investigation into Meta’s Reality Labs business, which houses the VR brand formerly known as Oculus.
In March, reports emerged that the Commission would be investigating Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. That regulatory action followed requests by activists and U.S Senators who expressed concern over both the undue concentration of market power and lack of consequences for beleaguered CEO Bobby Kotick.
These are just the mergers it’s actively acquisitioning. In late 2021, it joined other regulators in objecting to Nvidia’s $40 billion purchase of chipmaker Arm.
If Bungie maintains its promises of releasing games across multiple video game platforms, it’s tough to imagine that the FTC will take any steps to stop the acquisition. It faces far less scrutiny that Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, which is taking place under a much higher price tag that might have been deflated by a battery of lawsuits accusing the Call of Duty publisher of allowing a culture of sexual harassment, abuse, and discrimination to foster at its studios.