Sony has gained the upper hand in exclusive titles, and over the years, they’ve released hit IPs like God of War and Final Fantasy as PlayStation exclusives.
Last month, a report emerged that Sony was exploring a possible acquisition of Kadokawa, best known as the parent company of FromSoftware. While no official update has been provided on the seriousness of negotiations, some insiders suggest that one party is eager for a merger.
Kadokawa Employees on the Possible Sony Acquisition
According to Bunshun (via Automaton), several people from inside Kadokawa are eager to see Sony take over, and that’s because of the company’s attitude toward a recent cyberattack. An employee had said:
“The people around me are thrilled at the prospect of an acquisition by Sony… That’s because a certain number of employees are dissatisfied with the [Takeshi] Natsuno administration, which didn’t even bother to hold a press conference after peoples’ personal information was leaked in the cyberattack. They expect that if Sony were to acquire the company, they would get rid of the president first.”
Despite the employees' eagerness for someone else to take over, economic analyst Takahiro Suzuki claimed that the studio had little to gain from Sony's acquisition. He confirms that Kadokawa may lose much of its independence and become stricter for employees. It may be harder for them to be creative with the IP they’ve created.
What Does Sony Seek to Gain from Kadokawa
Kadokawa is a huge brand, and is in charge of several game studios and anime production houses. The studio owns the developers behind Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, and they also recently acquired the developers behind the Octopath Traveller games.
But no doubt, the crown jewel of gaming that falls under the Kadokawa banner is FromSoftware, a giant in the soulslike genre that’s delivered huge IP like Bloodborne, Armored Core, Dark Souls, Demon Souls, and the most recently celebrated Elden Ring.
Should Sony push through with the merger, some fans are concerned that future FromSoft games could be exclusive to PlayStation pushing forward. Then again, there has been a recent trend of exclusives only coming to specific platforms first, before eventually branching out to other platforms.
The Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn were originally PS-only exclusives, but over the course of the past few years, the titles eventually made their way into the PC market. Who knows, maybe there are plans to port it over to Xbox soon?
Touch Grass
When it comes to mergers, a lot of fans usually celebrate some IP getting the big-budget focus; but it usually comes at the price of massive layoffs first. There are admittedly pros and cons to the acquisition pushing through, but if the employees are allegedly not happy with the current management, maybe Sony coming it could help streamline the company culture.
A Sony/Kadokawa merger has not been officially announced, but maybe negotiations can progress throughout the next year.