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Sony Group has sent an initial letter of intent to acquire KADOKAWA Corporation's shares
- Thread starter Joseki
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Would be a massive shake up in the anime and manga industry given what Sony already has with Aniplex. Would probably raise trust concerns.
On the flip side, hard to see SIE being directly involved because so much of Kadokawa is not From, even their gaming side. I'd think they'd either be made their own subsidiary or be part of Sony Music Japan, which also has some gaming on top of the Anime.
On the flip side, hard to see SIE being directly involved because so much of Kadokawa is not From, even their gaming side. I'd think they'd either be made their own subsidiary or be part of Sony Music Japan, which also has some gaming on top of the Anime.
It totally would, not sure why Reuters goes on about "the Japanese media powerhouse behind the "Elden Ring" game", this is clearly about the manga/anime/book business above all else.
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Isn't Kadokawa mainly LNs and Mangas in that space?
I don't feel like Sony has much presence outside of Anime.
These things are related, but they're not a 1 to 1.
Just like TV/Film/Streaming are part of a whole but are separate. We've seen many mergers go through because of that, nobody considered that any of the giants are hitting that monopoly vibes.
In publishing you still have big players like Shuheisha/Kodansha/Shogakukan, etc...
That's plenty of other large(r) players.
Probably because it's the most familiar to the west. You are right though that it's massively misleading to understanding what is at play.
Yes their bread and butter is print. But they are still a big player involved in anime production and they also own Niconico, so that would be another massive streaming service under their belt after they got Funimation and Crunchyroll, both also anime related. So two massive anime producers and two massive streaming services.
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This would be a disaster, consolidation is bad
I Really, Really hope not. From needs to remain indipendent. Having their games be PS exclusives with no PC version for who know how long would be terrible (and stupid considering PC is likely their biggest platform.)
Sony buying Kadokawa would not necessarily mean they'd put it under SIE, in whole or part. The rest of Sony has no problem releasing games day one on other platforms. Heck Aniplex has switch exclusives (total, console, and launch).
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This would mean Sony owns the Kadokawa Culture Museum. Some real estate agencies too, i think. Anime News Network, Famitsu, Dengeki, Niconico, Dwango Music Publishing, there's getting too many to name.
This is genuinely horrible. Kadokawa has their hand in everything, they are a huge multimedia conglomerate.
This is genuinely horrible. Kadokawa has their hand in everything, they are a huge multimedia conglomerate.
This was always wishcasted but I figured it would be too messy for them to bother, considering how many parts of Kadokawa operate outside of Sony's current wheelhouse.
Wouldn't be particularly good for the animation side of things considering how much Sony already operates as a gatekeeper to the global market.
Wouldn't be particularly good for the animation side of things considering how much Sony already operates as a gatekeeper to the global market.
Not a fan, I hope it doesn't get through.
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Sony‘s anime business relies heavily on 3rd-party licences. The same weakness of their gaming business. What happens when those 3rd-parties wont work with them anymore. Or like Netflix securing important IP‘s like One Piece.
Getting Kadokawa would give them am treasure trove of IP.
Getting Kadokawa would give them am treasure trove of IP.
Awful news. On the gaming side is not much of a problem because Sony keeps their divisions independent, so games from Kadokawa's subsidiaries wouldn't become exclusive. The real issue here is that Sony will suddenly own a big share of the anime industry in every field (novels, manga, anime, merch, streaming, etc). They already own a good part of it because of Aniplex, so this would be massive. Not a fan at all and hoping doesn't happen.
I don't think with takeovers we can any longer assume it means changes to exclusivity.
If anything you could frame the above as Sony looking to expand its PC offerings and strengthen its hand in that space.
Doubt anyone can stop them if they like to buy kadokawa considering its no where near monopoly, aniplex itself doesnt really handle /publish manga
But yea fuck consolidation hope shits is just a rumor and nothing else
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Aniplex lack of a Manga/Light novel division is probably these talks are happening. That said though, Kadokawa owns several Anime studios, so I do wonder if that might cause issues. Because would effectively have a large pipline from source material publishing to animating to distribution.
Well A1 pictures/Cloverworks is a single studio technically so doubt them owning more would be a grounds to stop them, its shitty though
But yea Sony not having their own Manga/LN publishing company which is the bread and butter of kadokawa would be an easy greenlight imo
They could certainly ignore Xbox but Steam has became too big and central at this point for From Software games to skip the platform (even temporarily as we saw with FFXVI underperformance). This would only hurt Sony's strategy on PC, the studio and the IPs significantly (on top of creating backlash instead of positive buzz).
PC is without doubt From Software's biggest platform. Especially if you account Asia where the share must be Steam-heavy.
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I don't think SIE obtaining FromSoftware would actually mean anything for the videogame industry.
It's Sony Group getting Kadokawa and its publishing arm that would be potentially disastrous and should raise concerns. Sony should not have such a powerful position in the anime/manga industry.
It's Sony Group getting Kadokawa and its publishing arm that would be potentially disastrous and should raise concerns. Sony should not have such a powerful position in the anime/manga industry.
Theres plenty of other manga publishers and animation studio to even consider this a monopoly lol
Sony itself doesnt have an existing publishing division and kadokawa isnt even the biggest publisher in japan they are big but they arn’t Shueisha
Is it shitty? Hell yeah
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Sony getting Kadokawa would probably be most worrying for the west/US market.
Sony owns Crunchyroll, they own Aniplex and they would own Kadowaka. Potentially Sony could have a very large share of all the pies.
A Kadokawa manga could get an anime with an Aniplex production committee and be distributed worldwide exclusively on Crunchyroll.
Kadokawa usa already closed decades ago afaik the only publishing arm they own is J novel club which isnt that big
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But Sony does own Aniplex and A1-Pictures. If say Kadokawa is put under Sony Music, then they would have an entire pipeline from source material to making and distributing adaptions. Which is the big concern right there.
A1 pictures is inside aniplex, theres other companies anime/manga that owns the source material and owns the studio doing and and self publishes them Kadokawa itself is one of those company
It would probably kill what's left of Hidive too because their two biggest hits in recent years(Oshi no Ko and Eminence in Shadow) are both licensed through Kadokawa.
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Souls games are a Bandai Namco property, only ER is owned by From software.
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The timing of this coming out right after the ER DLC was allowed to be nominated for GotY...
But games aside, as everyone has said this is really bad for the anime industry. Sony has already bought up so much of that market.
But games aside, as everyone has said this is really bad for the anime industry. Sony has already bought up so much of that market.
That would be terrible. HiDive is probably the biggest anime focused competitor left in the anime streaming industry. Even if it is only like 10% of the size of Crunchyroll. If it goes under there's nothing left that Im aware of, at least in the US market.
Demon souls is sony , souls “genre” started as a partnership with sie
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Demon Souls - Sony
Dark Souls - BN
ER - From software
That's what i meant with "souls" tho, should have made it more clear.
Sony buying FromSoft would change little, PS and PC would continue as usual, Xbox support would be dropped. Nintendo would be unchanged due to FromSoft already skipping Nintendo consoles.
This wouldnt result to monopolization of anime/manga and to answer your question anime industry isn’t its own thing legally speaking
I wouldn't say it has nothing to do with videogames, but yeah... it's more about everything else Kadokawa owns.
Nintendo just announced earlier this month that it is strengthening its relationship with FromSoftware.
In the end, this acquisition is made by Sony, not SIE, and it is likely to have little impact on KADOKAWA's gaming division.
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FROM would be a monumental get for Playstation, they are pretty much unrivalled in what they do and their output is incredibly efficient.
Don't know much from the anime side but from a quick look it does not look like Kadokawa makes Sony a monopoly in any market. The biggest anime streaming competitors are Netflix, Prime and Disney. Sony has no manga presence either.
Bungie was $2.4B. The $1.2B was Sony giving bonuses to devs.
This will be $4B I think.
Don't know much from the anime side but from a quick look it does not look like Kadokawa makes Sony a monopoly in any market. The biggest anime streaming competitors are Netflix, Prime and Disney. Sony has no manga presence either.
Bungie was $2.4B. The $1.2B was Sony giving bonuses to devs.
This will be $4B I think.
SIE owning Spike Chunsoft, Acquire and GotchaGotchaGames would probably mean their closure.
A small loss for Nintendo but they have many other possible support studios they can work with.
Even if this deal happen, Souls games skipping PC is very unlikely to happen considering they already release a lot of games on PC nowdays including day-one releases for Helldivers II or LEGO Horizon recently.
However I can see them skipping Xbox.
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Anime is an industry that's way more legally distinct than the "high end console market". Its able to support multiple dedicated streaming services. Has entire sites, store fronts, and communities built around it. And ironically Sony themselves host an anime specific award show.
A loss for the industry. Acquire just got Tenchu back!
I obviously meant "Souls" as in the the Souls genre of games, which include games that do not necessarily have the Souls name in them like Bloodborne and Elden Ring
I hope that's true especially the day 1 part, doing the typical 2 year sony first party delay would kill the franchise's momentum.
Still though, it would suck if it meant no more XBOX (and in the future no Switch/Nintendo either) for a series of games that have become multiplatform for a while now.