Sony reportedly eyes buying Kadokawa, owner of Elden Ring dev FromSoftware

Talks are seemingly ongoing

Sony / Kadokawa / GLHF

Update (November 20, 2024): Kadokawa has issued a statement on the media reports claiming that it was in talks about being acquired by Sony, which confirms that Sony expressed interest in such a deal, but no decision has been made.

“There are some articles on the acquisition of KADOKAWA Corporation (hereinafter ‘the Company’) by Sony Group Inc. However, this information is not announced by the Company. The Company has received an initial letter of intent to acquire the Company's shares, but no decision has been made at this time. If there are any facts that should be announced in the future, we will make an announcement in a timely and appropriate manner.”

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Original (November 19, 2024): Sony may be flirting with the idea of acquiring Kadokawa, the Japanese media corporation with majority ownership of development studio FromSoftware, which is responsible for hits like Elden Ring as well as the Dark Souls and Armored Core series. Based on two sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reported that talks between the two parties are currently ongoing, though there is no indication as of yet whether they’ll successfully reach a deal.

Spike Chunsoft is another notable video game developer under Kadokawa’s umbrella, being owned by Dwango, with which Kadokawa merged in 2014.

Aside from its video game possessions, Kadokawa is an absolute powerhouse in the anime business. The MyAnimeList overview of the company’s portfolio shows a total of 449 shows as of November 19, 2024, among them hits like Konosuba, Overlord, Re:Zero, Sword Art Online, and Tanya the Evil. Recently, its adaptation of Delicious in Dungeon made waves on Netflix.

An acquisition would provide Sony with a near endless treasure trove of IP, which could be leveraged for everything from new games to TV shows. Several parts of Sony’s business might be able to benefit from this injection.

Sony already owns around 2% of Kadokawa since 2021. That year, the Japanese company also welcomed Chinese media powerhouse Tencent as a partner, which owns around 7%.

It’s been a few rough years for Kadokawa since then, with its chairman having been arrested for bribery connected to the Tokyo Olympics and a ransomware attack leaking tons of internal data online.

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Sony’s own affairs are going much smoother, though the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by its rival, Microsoft, has put some pressure on the company’s video game sector alongside the big failure that was the launch of Concord this year.