Bungie CEO says rumours of a Microsoft acquisition are "false"

(Image credit: Bungie)

Bungie has debunked claims that Microsoft was in talks to acquire the studio. Multiple rumours suggested that the two companies had made multiple attempts to strike a deal, but the studio’s CEO, Pete Parsons, now claims that these reports were false.

The reports first appeared on the GamesBeat podcast, where journalist Jeff Grubb said that he had heard that Microsoft had had talks with Bungie about potentially acquiring the studio, but that the talks “had fallen through repeatedly [as] the price is too high.”

Grubb’s suggestion was later backed up by Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips, who said that he had “independently heard these talks have taken place, driven on Bungie’s side by a desire to raise new funds for the studio, its projects and staff.”

However, Parsons responded to the claims on Twitter, simply stating that rumours relating to the talk and Bungie’s high sale price were “false.” Elsewhere, Destiny 2 community manager David Dague referred to the reports as “gossip.” It’s not completely clear, however, whether Parsons and Dague are debunking the reports in their entirety, or are merely suggesting that the claims are not totally accurate.

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While it seems likely that Bungie’s price tag would be pretty high, the suggestion that the studio would be actively seeking an acquisition partner didn’t appear to fit with its decision to separate from former publishing partner Activision in January 2019. Microsoft, however, could have been a good fit for Bungie, as the pair were partnered from 2000-2007, a period which encompassed the development of many of the early Halo games.

Things might not be changing at Bungie, but Destiny 2 will soon see big changes to Gambit, Crucible, and Strikes.

Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.