Sony Interactive Entertainment is stepping up ahead of the game with Xbox-maker Microsoft by buying Bungie Inc., the video game studio behind one of Xbox's hit games.

The company is planning to acquire Bungie Inc, an independent game publisher based in Bellevue, Washington, at the price of $3.6 billion.

Bungie was founded in Chicago in 1991, and its first games, Myth and Marathon, were released for personal computers. It now employs roughly 900 employees and is located near Microsoft's Redmond, Washington headquarters. San Mateo, California is home to Sony's video game branch.

Bungie is known for making the popular game franchise Destiny and is also the one behind creating the Xbox-owned Halo.

Sony is one of the largest video game firms in the world, but Microsoft has been increasing its gaming ambitions, most recently declaring plans to purchase high-profile game publisher Activision Blizzard for $ 68.7 billion.

It's worth noting that this announcement does not imply that Bungie games will become exclusive. Sony has stated that the studio will continue to be a multi-platform company with the ability to distribute its own games to "reach gamers wherever they choose to play."

"We've had a strong partnership with Bungie since the inception of the Destiny franchise and I couldn't be more pleased to officially welcome the studio to the PlayStation family," says Jim Ryan, president and CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Ryan stated that this partnership will provide new experiences to the PlayStation community as well as the ‘Bungie community’. As a result, everything indicates that future Destiny material, as well as the new Bungie series, will be Xbox and PC titles.

Microsoft would leapfrog Nintendo as the third-largest gaming firm in the world, after Japan's Sony and Chinese computer behemoth Tencent, if it acquired the owner of hits like Call of Duty and Candy Crush.

Bungie was purchased by Microsoft in 2000, although the game firm was eventually spun out in 2007, with Microsoft holding intellectual property rights to the Halo brand.

According to Ryan, the purchase of Bungie will allow them to use the studio's experience to produce long-term community engagement games as well as assist future PlayStation Studio projects that follow that model. They also aim to use PlayStation Studios' talent to improve the potential of future Bungie titles.

"This is an important step in our strategy to expand the reach of PlayStation to a much larger audience. We know how important the Bungie community is to the studio and we're excited to continue supporting them as they remain independent and continue to grow", adds Ryan.