Sony May Be Closing in on the Biggest Anime/Gaming Acquisition in Recent Years

Remember when Microsoft bought Activision/Blizzard in what was seen as one of the biggest power moves in gaming history? Well, Sony apparently saw that and decided to top it in an insane way. Per Reuters, Sony is very close to acquiring Japanese media strongman, Kadokawa. “Who is that?” I hear the average person say. Well… let me tell you.

Kadokawa, put simply, is a big, huge fish in the realm of Japanese entertainment. In case you don’t feel like clicking on that link, here are just a few of the multimedia branches Kadokawa is involved in. Gaming (FromSoftware, Spike Chunsoft, ACQUIRE). Manga (Delicious in Dungeon, Oshi no Ko — a metric ton of others). So on and so forth!

Basically, the acquisition would make Sony very, very, very prominent across multiple mediums — especially manga and anime. In terms of gaming, FromSoftware and the rest basically caucus with Sony/PlayStation anyway. It would seem that would be a cherry on top of a lucrative cake!

sony may be acquiring Kadokawa soon, so get ready

How does the internet feel about such a prospect? …Not good. “This would be a devastating blow to the Japanese third party space and Japanese entertainment industry in general with Sony already owning so much anime stuff. I really, really, really hope this does not come to pass,” one person stated.

Indeed, by the sounds of it, it wouldn’t quite be a monopoly, necessarily. …But it would be closing in on one, certainly. “This is almost like Disney buying Fox media a few years ago, this would give them access to a lot of IP. Mergers of this size are generally not great, but at least it being between two Japanese companies they shouldn’t be able to layoff huge swathes of people,” another user commented.

So, yeah, interesting times in the world of capitalism! I can’t say I’m particularly excited about the whole thing, but, hey. I’m a small cog in a machine I can hardly control, you know? My role is as a mere spectator and, sometimes, educator! If it all becomes too much, have a seat and watch Succession. …Where rich people fight over a massive multimedia company. Wait…