The corporation bought a further 12,054,100 shares in Kadokawa - which is the parent company of ‘Elden Ring’ developer FromSoftware - and so now holds roughly 10 per cent of the business' shares, making Sony Kadokawa’s largest shareholder.
While this is not a full acquisition as it was previously suggested in November by Reuters, Sony will be adapting Kadokawa’s IPs into live-action movies and TV shows, co-produce anime, and publish the studio’s games.
In a statement, Sony President and CFO Hiroki Totoki said: “Through this capital and business alliance, we will become the largest shareholder of Kadokawa, which consistently creates a wide variety of IP, including publications and books, such as light novels and comics, as well as games and anime.
“By combining Kadokawa’s extensive IP and IP creation ecosystem with the strengths of Sony, which has promoted the global expansion of a wide range of entertainment, including anime and games, we plan to work closely together to realize Kadokawa’s ‘Global Media Mix’ strategy, aimed at maximizing the value of its IP, and Sony’s long-term vision, ‘Creative Entertainment Vision.”
While Sony holds approximately 10 per cent of the total shares in the company, Chinese gaming juggernaut Tencent owns 6.86 per cent.
Kadokawa CEO Takeshi Natsuno said he expects the “alliance” with Sony would “not only further strengthen our IP creation capabilities, but also increase our IP media mix options with Sony's support for global expansion, allowing us to deliver our IP to more users around the world”.
