Sony Really, Really Wants Bungie’s Employees to Stay On Board
Recently, Sony picked up Bungie – the studio behind Halo and Destiny – for a cool $3.6 billion. And now, we’ve learned where some of that money is going. Sony says that they’ll pay 1/3rd of its $3.6 billion buyout proposal, or roughly $1.2 billion, on a long-term incentive plan to keep Bungie’s current staff on the team.
While the exact size of Bungie’s workforce isn’t listed anywhere, current estimated plot it within the 500-1100 range. Taking the higher end and assuming they’ve got 900 employees in their fold, that $1.2 billion averages out to well over a million dollars per person.
Of course, it’s unlikely that every employee will see an even slice of the pie. The distribution method is, for the moment, unknown – but if it’s based on anything, it’ll likely be on rank within the company. But despite that, even if someone gets half of the averaged payout, a half-million is still a serious chunk of change.
A while back, Microsoft made their own comments about retaining Bungie. They famously lost the company, leading to the creation of 343 Industries to carry the torch of the Halo franchise. They lamented the loss – and you can bet that they’re feeling the loss even harder to see them join forces with a major rival.
And with this move, it’s clear that Sony heavily values the current talent at Bungie. They didn’t want to just buy the company’s IPs or the brand, they wanted the employees. And if this investment pays off, Playstation fans might be able to expect some stellar games on the horizon.