What Sony's acquisition of FromSoft's parent company could mean for the company's games

Sony There has been a bit of an acquisition spree in recent years. Since the start of the PS5 generation, the company has added a total of nine studios to its PlayStation division in 2021, acquired by Sony. devil's spirit The newly created developer Bluepoint Games, in addition to companies like Housemarque, Valkyrie Entertainment, Nixxes Software, and Firesprite, then made a huge splash with purchases. radius and fortune creator Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2023. That same year, Sony bought Haven Studios and Savage Game Studios, which was later renamed Neon Koi, before eventually closing along with Firewalk Studios in 2024.

Clearly, Sony isn't done with the merger yet. According to a recent report from Reuters, Sony Group Corp. is in talks to buy Kadokawa Corporation, the multimedia conglomerate that owns FromSoftware and several other companies. Kadokawa is not well known in the West, but in Japan, Kadogawa is one of the leaders in the entertainment industry. Not only producing video games But it also produces anime and manga if Sony acquires Kadokawa Corporation as this report suggests. It may have a significant impact on the overall game. It depends on how the situation will develop.

Kadokawa Corporation confirmed that the Reuters report was accurate in a recently released statement, even though the company has already received a letter of intent from Sony to purchase the shares. “No decisions have been made at this time.”

Sony's acquisition of FromSoftware's parent company could be a game changer.

Kadokawa Corporation is a major player in the Japanese entertainment industry.

Kadokawa Corporation was originally founded as a publishing house called Kadokawa Shoten in 1945, but over the years, The company has expanded into various industries. many through mergers and acquisitions, companies It currently has a number of animation studios under its belt, such as Dogo Coba and ENGI, and owns the rights to some popular anime IPs, such as Re: center– Steins;gate– sword art online, and Overlord– Kadokawa also runs the popular video-sharing site Niconico, which is like a Japanese version of YouTube.

Kadokawa's presence in the gaming industry is not as large as other multimedia companies. But it still owns a few big developers. mentioned above dark souls and Elden Ring The creators of FromSoftware are perhaps the most prominent studio they own. But other companies include Spike Chunsoft, Acquire Corp., and Gotcha Gotcha Games. Spike Chunsoft is the company behind Danganronpa: Happy Havoc Trigger– AI: Somnium Fileand latest Dragon Ball: Sparkling ZeroWhile Acquire is best known for creating Octopath Traveler and Way of the Samurai game– Meanwhile, Gotcha Gotcha Games is the creator. RPG creator set.

Sony's acquisition of Kadokawa could lead to a future from what software games have become. PlayStation-Exclusive

The first thing most gamers probably think of when thinking about Sony's possible acquisition of Kadokawa is exclusivity. For example, if FromSoftware becomes a Sony-owned studio as a result of the acquisition, Given how popular and critically acclaimed FromSoftware's games have become, one might think that the company's games will be PlayStation exclusives in the future. This will make the PlayStation console even more desirable. A hypothetical sequel to Elden Ring or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice It could be the system vendor for the PS5 if it ends up being exclusive to the system.

However, a FromSoftware game becoming a PlayStation exclusive will be incredibly disappointing for Xbox players and PC users alike. While Sony's first-party games will eventually be released on platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store, they're almost never released on Xbox consoles, losing access to future FromSoftware games, not to mention Acquire and Spike Chunsoft would do major damage to the Xbox brand, especially considering the challenges it's currently facing due to Microsoft's multiplatform push.

Even if Sony buys out Kadokawa Corporation, it could bring the game to multiple platforms.

Many Sony subsidiaries regularly release games on non-PlayStation consoles.

From what has already been said Even if this agreement passes It is also possible that Sony will operate Kadokawa and FromSoftware as independent entities. In other words It might not make their games exclusive to PlayStation, and they might still work the same way. Sony has done similar things in the past. When it acquired Bungie in 2022, the company revealed that it intended to maintain it. radius Created as a semi-independent developer, separated from PlayStation Studios, Sony ultimately kept its word. Even though PlayStation owns it, Bungie's games remain available across multiple platforms to this day. The next game is a sci-fi sniper shooting game. marathonComing to Xbox Series X/S and PC on day one, in addition to PS5

Another subsidiary under Sony called Aniplex also releases multi-platform products, although Aniplex is more of an anime publisher than a game publisher. But many video games have been developed and produced over the years. Some of which skip the PlayStation console entirely. Recently released graphic novel Hookah Mistcreated by Acquire and published by Aniplex, released exclusively on PC and Nintendo Switch. Meanwhile, Aniplex's 2022 adventure game RPG Time: Legend of Wright It launched as an exclusive Xbox console before coming to the PS4 and Nintendo Switch a few months later. Although Aniplex is a subsidiary of Sony, it's clear that the company has little to do with PlayStation.

Kadokawa may remain an independent entity under Sony, separate from PlayStation.

Sony may ultimately intend to deal with Kadokawa Corporation in the same way it did with Aniplex. The fact that Sony Group Corp. is apparently the company considering acquiring Kadokawa, and not Sony Interactive Entertainment (like PlayStation), suggests that the deal isn't about games. But it is more about anime and manga. Sony is the leader in the anime industry. Having already acquired companies like Crunchyroll and Funimation, buying Kadokawa will further strengthen its influence in the market. and will fill some gaps in the group of companies.

Although acquiring Kadokawa Corporation and making all of its games exclusive to PlayStation is likely to boost console sales, it may be in Sony's best interest to operate a separate business from SIE and allow the company to remain multiplatform. Many Kadokawa-owned developers, such as Spike Chunsoft and Acquire, rely heavily on contract work with third-party publishers. Even though the first game has been in collaboration with Bandai Namco many times, But the latter often collaborates with Square Enix and Nintendo. Throwing these companies under the PlayStation Studios banner and preventing them from working with other publishers could also seriously damage their business strategy. For this reason Sony Probably didn't want to get too involved with Kadokawa's game department.