Games

What Sony Acquiring FromSoft's Parent Company May Mean For Its Games

Published

1 month ago

November 20, 2024

Sony has gone on a bit of an acquisition spree over the last few years. Ever since the start of the PS5 generation, the company has added a total of 9 studios to its PlayStation division. In 2021, Sony bought up the Demon’s Souls remake developer Bluepoint Games, in addition to other firms like Housemarque, Valkyrie Entertainment, Nixxes Software, and Firesprite. It then made a big splash by purchasing Halo and Destiny creator Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2023. In the same year, Sony acquired Haven Studios and Savage Game Studios, the latter of which was renamed to Neon Koi before it was ultimately shut down alongside Firewalk Studios in 2024.

Apparently, Sony isn’t done with mergers and acquisitions just yet. According to a recent report from Reuters, Sony Group Corp. is actively in talks to purchase Kadokawa Corporation, the multimedia conglomerate that owns FromSoftware, as well as many other companies. Kadokawa isn’t that well-known in the West, but in Japan, it is one of the leading forces in the entertainment industry. It not only produces video games, but anime and manga, as well. If Sony does acquire Kadokawa Corporation as this report suggests, then it may have major repercussions on the gaming landscape, depending on how the situation develops.

Kadokawa Corporation confirmed that Reuters’ report was accurate
in a statement it recently published
. Although the company has received a letter of intent from Sony to acquire its shares, “no decision has been made at this time.”

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Sony Acquiring FromSoftware’s Parent Company Could Be a Game-Changer

Kadokawa Corporation is a Major Player in the Japanese Entertainment Industry

Kadokawa Corporation was originally established as a publishing house called Kadokawa Shoten in 1945, but over the years, it expanded into several different industries through mergers and acquisitions. The company currently has a handful of animation studios under its belt, such as Dogo Coba and ENGI, and it owns the rights to some popular anime IPs, like Re:ZERO, Steins;Gate, Sword Art Online, and Overlord. Kadokawa also runs the popular video sharing website Niconico, which is like a Japanese version of YouTube.

Kadokawa’s presence in the gaming industry is not as large as some other multimedia corporations, but it still owns a couple of major developers. The aforementioned Dark Souls and Elden Ring creator FromSoftware is perhaps the most notable studio it has ownership of, but it also possesses other firms like Spike Chunsoft, Acquire Corp., and Gotcha Gotcha Games. Spike Chunsoft is the company behind Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, AI: The Somnium Files, and the recent Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, while Acquire is best known for making the Octopath Traveler and Way of the Samurai games. Gotcha Gotcha Games, meanwhile, is the creator of the RPG Maker series.

Sony Acquiring Kadokawa May Lead to Future FromSoftware Games Becoming PlayStation-Exclusive

The first thing that may come to most gamers’ minds when thinking about a possible Sony buyout of Kadokawa is the subject of exclusivity. If FromSoftware, for example, becomes a Sony-owned studio as a result of this potential acquisition, then many will likely assume that the company’s games will be exclusive to PlayStation going forward. Given how popular and critically-acclaimed FromSoftware’s games are, this will make PlayStation consoles a lot more desirable. A hypothetical sequel to Elden Ring or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice could be a system-seller for the PS5 if it ends up being exclusive to the system.

FromSoftware games becoming PlayStation-exclusive, however, would be incredibly disappointing for Xbox players and, to a lesser extent, PC users as well. While Sony first-party titles do eventually come to platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store, they almost never release on Xbox consoles. Losing access to future FromSoftware releases, not to mention Acquire and Spike Chunsoft games, would be a big blow to the Xbox brand, especially considering the challenges it’s going through right now due to Microsoft’s multiplatform push.

Even if Sony Does Buy Out Kadokawa Corporation, It May Keep Its Games Multiplatform

Multiple Sony Subsidiaries Regularly Release Games on Non-PlayStation Consoles

With that being said, even if this deal goes through, it’s possible that Sony will operate Kadokawa and FromSoftware as independent entities. In other words, it may not make their games exclusive to PlayStation and may keep operating them as-is. Sony has, after all, done similar things in the past. When it acquired Bungie in 2022, the company revealed that it intended to maintain the Halo creator as a semi-independent developer, separate from PlayStation Studios. Sony ultimately kept to its word; despite being owned by PlayStation, Bungie’s games are still multiplatform to this day. Its next release, the sci-fi extraction shooter Marathon, is coming to Xbox Series X/S and PC day-one, in addition to PS5.

Another subsidiary under Sony, called Aniplex, releases multiplatform titles as well. Although Aniplex is more of an anime distributor rather than a gaming publisher, it’s developed and produced several video games over the years, some of which have skipped PlayStation consoles entirely. The recently-released visual novel Hookah Haze, which was created by Acquire and published by Aniplex, only came out on PC and Nintendo Switch. Meanwhile, Aniplex’s 2022 adventure game RPG Time: The Legend of Wright launched as an Xbox console exclusive before coming to PS4 and Nintendo Switch a few months later. Even though Aniplex is a subsidiary of Sony, it’s evident that the firm barely has anything to do with PlayStation.

Kadokawa May Remain an Independent Entity Under Sony, Separate from PlayStation

Sony may ultimately intend to handle Kadokawa Corporation in the same way it does Aniplex. After all, the fact that Sony Group Corp. is apparently the company that’s considering a Kadokawa buyout and not Sony Interactive Entertainment (e.g. PlayStation) suggests that this deal is less about games and more about anime and manga. Sony is a juggernaut in the anime industry, and it has already acquired companies like Crunchyroll and Funimation. Purchasing Kadokawa will strengthen its influence on the market even more, and will fill in some of the gaps in its portfolio of subsidiaries.

Although acquiring Kadokawa Corporation and making all of its games exclusive to PlayStation will likely improve console sales, it may be in Sony’s best interest to operate the company separate from SIE and let it remain multiplatform. Many of the developers owned by Kadokawa, like Spike Chunsoft and Acquire, rely heavily on contract work with third-party publishers. While the former has collaborated with Bandai Namco on multiple occasions, the latter has often partnered up with Square Enix and Nintendo. Throwing these companies under the PlayStation Studios banner and preventing them from working with other publishers could significantly impair their business strategies. As such, Sony may not want to interfere with Kadokawa’s gaming division too much.