Sony paid big bucks to acquire Bungie and a fair amount of that money is going towards keeping the company’s talent around.
In January, Microsoft sent shockwaves through the industry by purchasing Activision/Blizzard. Nintendo didn’t seem interested in countering that move and the Japanese company’s President confirmed that in a recent interview. Sony did counter the move, though, by purchasing Bungie.
Acquiring Bungie means that Sony will be able to be able to bring in some of the developer’s biggest games, like Destiny and Halo, in-house. And in order to keep everything running smoothly, Sony will also be bringing in most of Bungie’s workers.
According to a report from Tweaktown, Sony announced during a meeting, “Approximately one-third of the US$3.6 billion acquisition consideration consists primarily of deferred payments to employee shareholders, conditional upon their continued employment, and other retention incentives.”
In total, Bungie has around 900 employees. So it’s a healthy sum which equates to about $1 million per developer. Clearly the money won’t be disbursed equally.
Like Activision/Blizzard, Bungie has been no stranger to criticism. Unlike Activision, though, the issue wasn’t sexual harassment, but an overworked team. And this large sum of money is meant to keep Bungie workers around.
The Washington Post notes that Bungie developers will be paid half of the money upfront once the deal closes. The remainder of the bonuses will be paid out over the subsequent years. One developer told the Post, “I don’t really understand the time frames or ramifications just yet. [It] seems designed to retain folks for at least a couple of years.”
