Kadokawa Corporation forms capital alliance with CyberAgent and Sony

Kadokawa Corporation has formed a capital alliance with CyberAgent and Sony to strengthen its game and animation businesses, the company announced in its financial results presentation for the third quarter ended December 31, 2021

[RaidenBlack]

Kadokawa does have Elden Ring maker FromSoftware under its umbrella.

[Darkborn]

Wonder if it's why the news about that game has been so dry the last year.

[Sonic-and-Crash]

either way From Soft was always somewhat an unofficial Playstation Studio...they made games for PS since the launch of PS1 ...the relation was always strong .

...though its not the studio that matters most but more the creator/director Miyazaki who probably is the best thing in gaming world that came out from Japan the last years (PS3 era and after) ....from the previous gen developers (who most of them have retired) only Kojima still left active and worthy to represent Japan s perfection in gaming

[Orchard]

They also made games for Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows, DS, Wii... in fact almost the same number of Xbox games as Playstation.

[Orchard]

This equates to 1.93% of the company. This deal is not the reason you haven't seen any updates on Elden Ring.

[DashMad]

not really it's aniplex, kadokawa and cyberagent, it's about dealing with anime franchise distribution their localization, and other media adaptation such as live action movie and games, Sony buying crunchyroll in the west and creating partnership in japan was for this since they anounced Anime as new pilar of their bussiness.

not related at all with Elden Ring, elden ring is not even anime lol.

[DeadSilence]

Yeah, Sony now has them locked for the inevitable future acquisitions.

This means that From Software will be a PlayStation Studio.

[1Victor]

Is it possible for Sony to acquire from software? Yes
Will it happens?
No one knows

[The_Sage]

Thanks captain obvious.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

I don't think so, tbh. I don't have much knowledge of any of these companies but it seems like Kadokawa is trying to avoid a hostile takeover from another company (Kakao).

This alliance relates heavily to anime as well which is produced by a different division of Sony.

[Brazz]

More likely to be something like fusion or absorption. Kadokawa is big and prety much all their business are in line whit Sony entertainment business... From. is just the cherry on the cake, Kadokawa and sony are a perfect match for each other.

[The_Hooligan]

Bloodborne 2 please!!

[Orchard]

1.93% is not how you 'lock in an inevitable future acquisition'. By that logic, Sony are about to buy Fortnite and Unreal Engine 4.

[Darkborn]

It's a "partnership". You give and take in them and I'm pretty sure Sony can give them more than they can give Sony especially because Sony owns crunchyroll and funimation.

[Orchard]

@Darkborn Correct, but that's unlikely to yield any game exclusivity. Kadokawa still have to please the investors who represent the other 98.07% and exclusivity reduces revenue and profit, so it's unlikely the other 98% would think that's a great idea.

More likely this deal involves stuff in the anime space than games - especially with the recent acquisition of Crunchyroll.

[Abnor_Mal]

So does this mean that we will see a 60 fps official patch for Bloodborne, or better yet a new Bloodborne game. Will PlayStation be getting any exclusives out of this deal or will it just be limited timed "exclusives".

[Pancit_Canton]

This could be huge. Kodawaka is big in terms of Anime & Video Games.

[RememberThe357]

Woops😂

[Good-Smurf]

Been bought some book and movie from Kadokawa really quality stuff they made.
Not familiar with their anime though other than Haruhi school girl thing.

[Brazz]

Hum... I think this counts as one step closer to one more Playstation exclusive made by FromSoftware.

[neutralgamer1992]

This just means sony will buy them out in near future. From software will be exclusive developer for sony. Usually this is how they like to acquire. They want to test and see how a relationship works before acquisition

I have said this countless times sony as a company depends on playstation while ms as a company don't need xbox revenue to turn profit. So it's in Sony's best interest to acquire and strengthen it's studios. They should target japanese companies who maybe more open to sony acquisition

Kadokawa/from software
Capcom
Sega

[Darkborn]

I've been saying that too. In fact a few times in the past few years the Microsoft investors were saying Xbox is bleeding money. On the other note, Sony is pretty strategic in their partnerships and they own a significant amount of anime and Manga now. They should invest in a publisher or a few studios that make anime games specifically.

[neutralgamer1992]

I think with Microsoft buying so many RPG studios it would be better for Sony to invest in Japanese publishers

[Darkborn]

True, and I kinda want Sony to buy or create a good soley rpg studio too. They do have some rpgs, but not quite at the same level.

[phoenixwing]

if sony gets a few exclusive jrpg's for its platform i'll probably end up buying a playstation system again even though i went pc route this gen

[Killer73nova]

It seems this is mostly a anime, manga and films that this deal is made up of. Maybe this is Sony just getting in the door for the gaming division but it makes sense since they just acquired crunchyroll.

[Omegasyde]

I agree. I think this mostly anime focused

[Orchard]

The people here thinking Elden Ring is going to be exclusive, or Sony are going to acquire FromSoftware due to this move are pretty far off the mark. This deal gives 1.93% ownership to Sony (and another 1.93% to CyberAgent).

That is nothing, Sony acquired similar shares of Epic - I don't see Fortnite becoming a PlayStation exclusive or Sony acquiring Epic/UE4.

[Killer73nova]

My exact thoughts.

[phoenixwing]

if you think it doesn't create preferential treatment then you don't understand humans or business

[Orchard]

1.93% doesn't create preferential treatment - if you think it does, you clearly don't understand humans or business. They still have to appease the investors who own the other 98% with good revenue, which would mean not making the games exclusive or nerfing one platform.

By that logic, where is our preferential treatment for Fortnite or Unreal Engine 4 on PS5? Tencent owns 40% of Epic and they don't even get preferential treatment...

[Extermin8or3_]

@orchard and yet unreal engine 5 development with Sonh's direct involvement abd the reveal of it was on ps5 hardware. So clearly that 2% does mean something. No Sony isn't about to acquire epic games but that's a very different situation to this anyway.

No elden ring isn't going to suddenly become an exclusive. But Sony have worked with from software before and this simply makes it all the more likely we will see them do so again.

[rlow1]

They mention acquisitions of new ips. Part of this partnership could be about aquiring game and anime studios for their IPs. Sony doesn't have the money like MS to gobble up studios, but if they partnered and share the cost of purchase then they could pursue Bigger studios.

[Platinum_k]

sweet. pump those AAA games out there!

[Knightofelemia]

Hope Kadokawa brings more of their anime and manga to the world of video games

[FGHFGHFGH]

Isn't this where Kutaragi is at now?