Is Elden Ring 2 about to be PlayStation only? (Bandai Namco)
One of the biggest media conglomerates in Japan is said to be in talks with Sony, which would have serious ramifications.
Remember how big a deal it was when Microsoft put down an offer for all of Activision Blizzard? Well, something similar may be about to happen with Sony, as there is chatter of it acquiring a massive Japanese company.
The business in question is Kadokawa Corporation and even if you don’t recognise the name, you should be familiar with some of the other companies it owns. For starters, it’s the owner of FromSoftware, the developer responsible for Elden Ring, the Dark Souls series, and Bloodborne.
Neither Sony nor Kadokawa have commented on if such a deal is being discussed but, if it does happen, this will have far reaching consequences beyond making the inevitable Elden Ring sequel a PlayStation exclusive.
Is Sony buying Kadokawa Corporation and FromSoftware?
According to a report from Reuters, Sony and Kadokawa are currently in talks about a potential acquisition. Nothing is set in stone but supposedly the two could end up signing a deal in the coming weeks, if they can come to an agreement.
Sony already owns a 2% stake in Kadokawa, as well as a 14% stake in FromSoftware. Reuters states that Kadokawa’s market value prior to its report was an estimated $2.7 billion (about £2.1 billion), so Sony would likely need to offer more than double that to acquire the whole company.
The games industry is already consolidated enough without Sony purchasing FromSoftware, but that wouldn’t be the only game developer it would claim. Kadokawa is also the parent company of Spike Chunsoft, Acquire, and Gotcha Gotcha Games.
As such, these studios would likely be unable to partner with any other publishers again. Spike Chunsoft and Acquire have both worked on Nintendo IPs in the past, with the former developing the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games and the latter just recently releasing Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
Making their games exclusive is traditionally the number one reason to buy a publisher but that’s not how it’s worked out with Microsoft, who were forced to keep Call Of Duty multiformat as a result of the acquisition agreement but probably would’ve done so anyway given so much of the game’s income comes from PlayStation sales.
The original idea was to make all Bethesda games exclusive, starting with Starfield, but while Microsoft still hasn’t made its position entirely clear that now seems as if it’s no longer the case.
That decision seems to be a result of rapidly declining Xbox console sales but with the PlayStation 5 continuing to perform better it’s uncertain what Sony’s multiformat policy might be if it did acquire Kadokawa.
Earlier this month, per a GameWatch report (as translated by Automaton), Kadokawa announced it had 26 new games in development across its subsidiaries.
Six of those are for mobile, which would benefit Sony since it’s still trying to break into the mobile gaming market. Although those plans have clearly taken a hit considering Sony shut down mobile studio Neon Koi last month.
The other 20 games are believed to be console and PC titles, spread across FromSoftware and Kadokawa’s other developer. There’s no clue what any of them are, but Sony would be getting far more than a handful of game studios if the acquisition goes through.
What is Kadokawa Corporation?
We’re not exaggerating when we say Kadokawa is massive in Japan. It is a media conglomerate covering multiple forms of entertainment besides video games and has publishing rights for a lot of films, TV shows, manga, and anime.
Some of the more prominent examples of IPs Kadokawa handles publishing for include Sword Art Online, Re:Zero, and Delicious In Dungeon.
It’s clear Sony isn’t just looking to get more game studios under its belt. It wants to expand its reach in entertainment in general. Acquiring Kadokawa would give it quite the stranglehold in anime, since Sony already owns Crunchyroll, the biggest and most well-known anime streaming site.
And who knows, if the deal goes through, maybe they’ll finally stop ignoring From’s classic Bloodborne as well…
It’s never going to happen, is it? (Sony)
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