After numerous reports about a potential acquisition, Sony Group Corporation and Kadokawa Corporation have made a significant announcement. Through a statement, they confirmed a new strategic alliance to jointly expand their businesses and franchises.
Sony won’t become the new owner of Kadokawa as many expected, but it will become its largest shareholder. This will be achieved by purchasing significantly more shares of the entertainment conglomerate, which encompasses video game studios, anime, and more.
Sony and Kadokawa Join Forces in a New Alliance
According to the details, Sony Group Corporation and Kadokawa Corporation signed a strategic capital and business alliance agreement today. The owners of PlayStation will acquire 12,054,100 additional shares of the conglomerate through an investment of ¥50,000,000 JPY.
The deal will be finalized on January 7, 2025, at which point Sony will become Kadokawa’s largest shareholder, controlling approximately 10% of its shares. This figure also includes the investment Sony made in February 2021 alongside Tencent.
What will this new strategic alliance achieve? The companies recalled their past collaborations on various projects and aim to further strengthen their partnership to “maximize the global value of both companies’ intellectual property and facilitate broader and deeper collaboration.”
The goals include future investments, talent scouting, and joint promotion of their products. While there are no concrete details on the first projects yet, it is known that they will collaborate on films, anime, and video games.
“In the future, the two companies plan to discuss specific initiatives for collaboration, such as initiatives to adapt Kadokawa's IP into live-action films and TV dramas globally, co-produce anime works, expand global distribution of Kadokawa's anime works through the Sony Group, further expand publishing of Kadokawa's games, and develop human resources to promote and expand virtual production..”
Will PlayStation Benefit from the Agreement with Kadokawa?
Although there are no specific details for now, it is highly likely that PlayStation will benefit from this new alliance between Sony and Kadokawa. The possible acquisition of the conglomerate generated significant expectations among players, as it owns key studios.
The most notable is undoubtedly FromSoftware, one of Japan’s most prominent developers, known for franchises like Dark Souls, ELDEN RING, Sekiro, and Armored Core.
Kadokawa also controls Spike Chunsoft, famous for Danganronpa, Zero Escape, and iconic anime-based fighting games, including the recent Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO. Additionally, Kadokawa owns ACQUIRE and Gotcha Gotcha Games, studios behind titles like Octopath Traveler and RPG Maker.
The statement mentions an expansion in Kadokawa’s game distribution, which could result in more games for PlayStation users and even a few exclusivity agreements.
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