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Update []: Kadokawa Corporation has acknowledged reports of a purchase offer from Sony via a company statement posted online (thanks, Gematsu).
It says that Sony has issued a letter of intent to acquire the company’s shares, but no decision has been made at the time of writing. An official announcement will be made at a later date should any significant developments arise.
Original Story: A new report from Reuters has emerged that reveals Sony is potentially in talks to purchase Kadokawa, a Japanese media conglomerate that serves as parent to dozens of entertainment companies.
In the gaming space, Kadokawa owns Spike Chunsoft, Acquire, Gotcha Gotcha Games, and FromNetworks, while also owning a majority stake in FromSoftware alongside Tencent and Sony. We imagine that FromSoftware is proving particularly attractive for Sony, since the studio is responsible for the likes of Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and the Armored Core franchise.
However, for us, Sony gobbling up Acquire and Spike Chunsoft would be particularly devastating if it means neither can collaborate with Nintendo again. The former is known for its work with Square Enix on the Octopath Traveler games, but more recently found itself in the headlines for its development of Mario & Luigi: Brothership on the Switch. Should Sony acquire, um, Acquire, we can’t imagine it would take too kindly to the team taking up time and resources on another future Mario & Luigi title. As such, Nintendo may need to look for an alternative developer if it wishes to continue the franchise.
The latter, Spike Chunsoft, is an arguably even bigger potential loss for Nintendo fans. The studio is well known for the likes of Danganronpa and Master Detective Archives, but it’s also the developer behind the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon franchise, having worked on it under the name ‘Chunsoft’ before rebranding to ‘Spike Chunsoft’ in 2012 following a merger with Spike. The last entry, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, launched on the Switch in 2020.
At the time of writing, neither Sony nor Kadakawa have commented on the reports of a potential acquisition, but Reuters states that talks are ongoing and, if successful, a deal could be signed within a matter of weeks. Of course, should it all go through, Sony could very well allow the studios to continue collaborating on whichever franchises they see fit, but something tells us that they’ll become firmly entreched within PlayStation Studios.