Kadokawa Corporation has formed an alliance with Sony and CyberAgent. As translated by Gematsu, the company revealed in their financial results that they’ve formed the alliance to “enhance IP development” and expand their IPs across the globe.
The agreement means the three companies will pool their expertise and resources for each others’ mutual benefit. Kadokawa Corporation will create more strong IPs “composed of a diversified portfolio”. Sony will use their publishing muscle to increase the spread of games and animation across the world. Finally, CyberAgent will take care of the mobile market. Both CyberAgent and Sony now have 1,422,475 shares in Kadokawa as part of the agreement, each gaining a 1.93% stake in the company.
Kadokawa aims to use their existing IPs to maximum effect. Kadokawa Games, another subsidiary company, has their own range of IPs like the Root Letter visual novels and turn-based RPGs Metal Max Xeno, Demon Gaze and God Wars. These would all benefit from increasing their global market, especially since Sony bought anime streaming service Crunchyroll and gives Kadokawa’s animations a far bigger audience than it likely already has. The developer also wants to take a multimedia approach for their existing properties. There have already been books, comics, and figurines created for several of their titles, but there’s always room to capitalise on the memorabilia market.
The developer also detailed how they would now have more investment to allow them to create, develop and acquire new IPs. They’re also looking to buy out or invest in content holders. Of course, one of Kadokawa’s current subsidiary companies is FromSoftware, best known for Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This won’t necessarily mean more PlayStation exclusive titles, though, especially as the upcoming Elden Ring will be multi-platform and published by Bandai Namco. However, as Sony owns the Bloodborne and Demon’s Souls IPs (Bandai Namco owns Dark Souls and Activision owns Sekiro), it may pave the way for a future acquisition by Kadokawa.
[Source: Kadokawa Games via Gematsu]
