Sony buy Kadokawa and make them exclusive - Why it needs to happen!

[Bryank75]

We just had a studio closure after Sony bought quite a few new developers, including Bungie, Firesprite, Firewalk, Haven, Bluepoint, Housemarque and regrettably Nixxes.

However none of these are an answer to Zenimax being bought out. Bungie as we all know will remain multiplatform and will lend their expertise in live service games to other studios in the PS family.

While PlayStation has lost many games due to the Zenimax acquisition and the studios before that, including Ninja Theory, Obsidian and Double Fine!

Since the ABK deal has seemingly fallen through (at least for now), I think Sony need to extend their ownership of Kadokawa, the parent company of From and most importantly MAKE ALL OF THEIR CONTENT EXCLUSIVE, FOREVER.

This would reunite From with their IP's Demons Souls and Bloodborne and ultimately makes sense on multiple fronts, PC is becoming less and less relevant as time goes on, the architecture is showing it is unfit for modern day gaming and stuck in the past. Sony was the company who commissioned From to make an RPG to rival Elder Scrolls in the first place, birthing the Souls genre. With all Obsidian and Zenimax WRPGS gone / unavailable on PlayStation, it is only just that Sony make From games exclusive.

No Xbox and no PC, as PC gamers already get Zenimax and Obsidian WRPGS and have lost nothing due to the acquisitions war started by Microsoft, they never protested against PS gamers losing games and only further tried to argue against PlayStation having ANY exclusives. Meanwhile the port sales on PC were pathetic and piracy was rife. Far more copies pirated than sold.

Making From an exclusive PS developer is balance, it is justice.

 

[Puff]

Two Acquisitions i think Sony should make:

1.FromSoftware
2.CD Projekt

 

[VillaiN]

Sony s way too thin on rpg side.
I dont think even From d be enough. They lost bethesda and obsidian.

Dunno what ll happen but their focus should be:
From
Cdpr
Larian (they re smaller but give them huge budget and devs). In that order.

So far i dont think it ll happen. Maybe they think Horizon s more than enough. Their focus seems live services.

 

[Loy310]

Need to be SE. Get them asap. SE can turn FF into a Souls like game with an FF shoot off and it will sell like candy.

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

With Xbox failing and none of the cloud giants is able to penetrate the market, do you see any threat to Sony? Do they need to secure 3rd party publishers?

The only company in the world who can run a marathon with Sony is Apple, but I don't believe they are interested in AAA market.

 

[VillaiN]

Two Acquisitions i think Sony should make:

1.FromSoftware
2.CD Projekt

Yea. Also cdpr has gog. Sony could put their games there without giving steam their share. If they c9ntinue pc path.
They d get huge ps5,pc rpgs, maybe make movies, more shows about witcher, cyberpunk.

 

[Bryank75]

Sony s way too thin on rpg side.
I dont think even From d be enough. They lost bethesda and obsidian.

Dunno what ll happen but their focus should be:
From
Cdpr
Larian (they re smaller but give them huge budget and devs). In that order.

So far i dont think it ll happen. Maybe they think Horizon s more than enough. Their focus seems live services.

Yeah, for some reason I think they don't look at the loss of those specific types of games as important and have focused much more on GAAS but I think they need to understand that sitting idle and not providing experiences that people have come to expect and do enjoy is a mistake.

I have to ask, what if MSFT buys CDPR since they can't probably get ABK?

It would be another quite big blow to the PS catalogue diversity.

 

[Zzero]

I get the feeling that From's current owners don't want to sell. In that sense, there's nothing to do.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

I don't know if this would really work. For one Kadokawa have their hands in anime, and Sony have a lot of presence in anime as-is (as a multi-anime content distributor). They would probably have to divest some part or parts of Kadokawa to acquire them due to that.

More than that, them acquiring Kadokawa would create a complication with Bandai Namco, who seem to be doing well as From Software's publisher. I don't know if Sony want to throw a wrench in that relationship, or their own relationship with Bandai Namco, at least not without working out a strong deal. And while I understand the argument of removing Xbox & PC out of the picture, after Elden Ring's success and if Armored Core sees similar numbers (strongly doubt it, but you never know), some may try to argue that their IP are too big to risk making exclusive to just one platform.

It would also maybe be a bit crappy of them to remove From Software games on PC when they've been going to that platform for years and, unlike Xbox, have good sales presence on PC (not to the degree of PlayStation but I think Elden Ring ratio on PC was pretty close to PlayStation's in the initial sales milestone report a couple weeks after the game came out, IIRC). I mean it's only fair: if some PlayStation people are upset games that've had presence and very good sales volume on Sony platforms, like TES and Fallout, won't be coming to PlayStation systems anymore and call that wrong, they can't turn around and say PC gamers complaining about loss of From Software titles is suddenly unfair.

I personally think Sony's future relationship with From Software will probably involve co-development and funding on a new IP with them, maybe MP-focused, maybe with a studio like Bungie also involved, and would be multiplatform. But, Sony retaining half the IP ownership (From Software/Kadokawa retaining the other half), having marketing rights, publishing rights on PlayStation (but providing a cut to Bandai Namco), and letting Bandai Namco publish the game on Xbox & PC (but giving Sony a cut of that in turn).

Sounds like that would work out best for all parties involved.

 

[Bryank75]

Need to be SE. Get them asap. SE can turn FF into a Souls like game with an FF shoot off and it will sell like candy.

Did you not play FF Origins: Stranger of Paradise?

 

[Bryank75]

I get the feeling that From's current owners don't want to sell. In that sense, there's nothing to do.

I'm suggesting buy all of Kadokawa, they already own a few %.... I am thinking that they should increase it up to over 51% and then go to 100% a year or so after.

 

[Swolf712]

Can't say I agree with this. The less consolidation, the better.

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

I don't know if this would really work. For one Kadokawa have their hands in anime, and Sony have a lot of presence in anime as-is (as a multi-anime content distributor). They would probably have to divest some part or parts of Kadokawa to acquire them due to that.

More than that, them acquiring Kadokawa would create a complication with Bandai Namco, who seem to be doing well as From Software's publisher. I don't know if Sony want to throw a wrench in that relationship, or their own relationship with Bandai Namco, at least not without working out a strong deal. And while I understand the argument of removing Xbox & PC out of the picture, after Elden Ring's success and if Armored Core sees similar numbers (strongly doubt it, but you never know), some may try to argue that their IP are too big to risk making exclusive to just one platform.

It would also maybe be a bit crappy of them to remove From Software games on PC when they've been going to that platform for years and, unlike Xbox, have good sales presence on PC (not to the degree of PlayStation but I think Elden Ring ratio on PC was pretty close to PlayStation's in the initial sales milestone report a couple weeks after the game came out, IIRC). I mean it's only fair: if some PlayStation people are upset games that've had presence and very good sales volume on Sony platforms, like TES and Fallout, won't be coming to PlayStation systems anymore and call that wrong, they can't turn around and say PC gamers complaining about loss of From Software titles is suddenly unfair.

I personally think Sony's future relationship with From Software will probably involve co-development and funding on a new IP with them, maybe MP-focused, maybe with a studio like Bungie also involved, and would be multiplatform. But, Sony retaining half the IP ownership (From Software/Kadokawa retaining the other half), having marketing rights, publishing rights on PlayStation (but providing a cut to Bandai Namco), and letting Bandai Namco publish the game on Xbox & PC (but giving Sony a cut of that in turn).

Sounds like that would work out best for all parties involved.

Also Sony already owns significant shares in Kadokawa. So, they are secured from any acquisition that is not in Sony's interest. There is no need to buy them just to make them exclusive.

 

[Yurinka]

They only have $140M of the budget left to spend on acquisitions, investments and stock repurchases during this fiscal year. Sony said they'll continue acquiring in the mid to long term, but not in short term.

But if they had to make any big acquisition in a future year, and the other part would be open to sell, I'd buy 100% Capcom first and I'd ask Kadokawa to sell them only FromSoft and the FromSoft IPs.

But in the specific case of FromSoft, Sony already had dozens of exclusives from them since PS1, and also got dozens of exclusives from the rest of Kadokawa since PS1, and on top of that Sony has a deal with Kadokawa to help them bring the Kadokawa videogame and anime IPs to a global market. So they don't need to buy them to keep getting exclusives from them.

Regarding Capcom, Sony already got exclusive deals like VR version of RE Village and RE4R, plus no Xbox One version of RE4R and Street Fighter 6 etc. Now that they'll stop investing on CoD marketing in a handful years that money I assume will go to other games, and a part of that could be spent to get exclusives from Capcom, in the same way they got exclusives like Final Fantasy.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

I worry about Bandai Namco. They already said they did something to prevent the Souls/ER going exclusive so I don't know. Sony needs to push them out.

 

[Bryank75]

I worry about Bandai Namco. They already said they did something to prevent the Souls/ER going exclusive so I don't know. Sony needs to push them out.

If they actually did something like that, Sony need to sort them out when Xbox drop out of consoles.

 

[anonpuffs]

I don't think they need to acquire anyone. More pc porting studios if anything

 

[Bryank75]

I don't think they need to acquire anyone. More pc porting studios if anything

 

[Eternal_Wings]

With Xbox failing and none of the cloud giants is able to penetrate the market, do you see any threat to Sony? Do they need to secure 3rd party publishers?

The only company in the world who can run a marathon with Sony is Apple, but I don't believe they are interested in AAA market.

Yes they need. You shouldn’t look only at Microsoft. The real threats to business in Japan are Tencent, NetEase and the Saudi Investment Group. Yes they absolutely need to lock them down asap. Also a CEO can also backstab them by porting games at a later date to rival consoles. Sony needs now to buy them as long they are affordable. Square Enix value is very low with a bit more than $5.5B. Would be waste not buy them. Don’t forget they are not only games, Sony can draw the maximum use of Square Enix properties: Gangan Comics Manga to Anime Adaptions for their Anime business, mobile games, CGI movies for Sony Pictures, merchandise by Taito and also possible to handle their Japanese legacy IPs. Plus they have plenty of GaaS experience (FF14). This buyout would be a huge win for Sony. And they probably know this themselves without me.

 

[Nhomnhom]

You can't do any better than FromSoftware. Quality is all that matters. A big fuck you to Xbox is always welcomed by me.

Two Acquisitions i think Sony should make:

1.FromSoftware
2.CD Projekt

CDPR would be great for Sony because it's a direct answer to Bethesda and most of their problems come from bad management. It would be good for Sony to have studios in Eastern Europe too. At their best they are pretty much the best western RPG studio and that is very valuable.