New Delhi, Jul 16 (IANS): Japanese giant Sony has closed the $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie, the developer of Destiny and the original creator of the hugely popular Halo franchise.

"The agreement to acquire Bungie has closed. So now we can officially say… welcome to the PlayStation family," the company said in a tweet late on Friday.

The Sony-Bungie acquisition evaded the antitrust scrutiny while Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of ‘Call of Duty' maker Activision Blizzard is facing formal investigations in the US, the UK and South Korea.

Bungie will "continue to independently publish and creatively develop our games," its CEO Pete Parsons had said in a statement earlier this year.

Halo was one of Microsoft Xbox's flagship franchises, but after a few sequels, Bungie was spun out into an independent company.

In 2013, Bungie launched the Destiny game which became a huge hit.

"We will be ready to welcome and support Bungie as they continue to grow, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for this incredible team," said Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios.

After acquiring Bungie, Sony said it plans to launch more than 10 new live service games by March 2026.

Bungie's next IP, codenamed Matter, is rumoured to be a "multiplayer action game" with "character-based" gameplay.

Bungie said last year that its next IP will launch before 2025. But that's just one game out of the 10, and Eurogamer points out that there are signs of many more in the works.