Bungie Receives $100M from NetEase to Self-Publish Video Games

Bungie is the studio behind the “Halo” and “Destiny” video game franchises, and it recently announced a partnership with Chinese tech giant NetEase. Part of the partnership is an investment worth $100 million, a minority stake in the development studio, and a board of directors seat. The developers are apparently planning on using this money to self-publish someday.

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons shared his company’s ambitions to someday stop relying on other companies to publish its video games. The studio’s most well-known projects were published under Microsoft and Activision, but it hopes to release a game under its own brand at some point in the future.

As for what effects this new partnership will have on Bungie’s current responsibilities with "Destiny 2," the studio assures players that there will be no issues, The Verge reports. In fact, the studio has big plans for growing the "Destiny" franchise for many years, which fans of the property might be delighted to know.

As Game Rant notes, it’s also no surprise that Bungie would want to strike out on its own. The studio has been desperately trying to gain more independence in its ability to make games. It simply didn’t have the funds to successfully accomplish this goal in the past.

By being able to create its own IPs without worrying too much about interference from the higher-ups, the developers might finally be able to deliver games based on their purest vision. It might even be a huge departure from franchises like "Destiny," which is absolutely loaded with microtransactions that players have been complaining about.

"Destiny 2" has been a particularly prickly subject for many players due to how the game has been handled since launch. If the studio can somehow manage to turn things around and make the game infinitely better, it might earn enough goodwill to propel its self-publishing ambitions forward.