People (including myself) are confused why Sony would buy Bungie, so I've been thinking about the pro's in owning a multiplatform studio.
Owning the
Tiger engine come first to mind - this is/was a proprietary engine developed by Bungie for Destiny and probably more future Bungie games.
In a Reddit AMA, Chris Kosanovich, Engineering Manager at Bungie stated:
“Regarding the engine, Aldridge may speak to this more but every engine I've ever used has strengths and weaknesses. I certainly would not classify the Destiny engine as 'archaic' and I certainly wouldn't want to try to build Destiny in any other engine. Of course there are processes that are slow and we're making improvements to address our tech debt. Not totally sure what you mean about a 'new engine in future titles' but we updated the engine from D1 to D2 and continue to update the engine during D2 development. We'll never make a whole new engine and move destiny to it, but any future games that Bungie makes wouldn't necessarily need to use the Destiny tech if it doesn't make sense for that game.”
Destiny: Six Years in the Making - GDC 2015
There's no doubt the Tiger engine is a beast - or have become one. Since I played Destiny in 2014 it's easy to see the improvements today.
So what can Sony use this engine for? - Firewalk Studios who consists of past Bungie devs and who's making a multiplayer game
may need an engine for their game.
From Firewalk Studios website:
"Firewalk Studios is a new game development studio whose mission is to spark incredible multiplayer experiences that inspire memorable moments. We believe the brightest memories in gaming often come from playing and sharing experiences with each other. We are excited to be part of the ProbablyMonsters family of studios, and we are currently working on an unannounced, original IP that is being published by our partners at Sony Interactive Entertainment. We look forward to sharing more about our latest project in the future."
Concept art:
To me, this looks like something the Tiger engine would be perfect for - cause it looks a lot like Destiny.
The Firewalk Studios devs even have experience with it and if they're allowed to "borrow" everything from Bungie - the development of their game would go smoothly.