After online rumors swirled around last week, Kadokawa has since confirmed that Sony is in fact interested in acquiring the Japanese media conglomerate known for its anime and manga publishing, as well as its majority 70% share in FromSoftware, the studio behind Elden Ring and Bloodborne. The deal is far from being set in stone, though, as Japanese analysts are now predicting that Sony could pull out of discussions due to Kadokawa’s costly price tag.
That’s according to Japan’s Toyo Keizai – based on translations from Automaton – which reports that Sony might stop short of outright buying Kadokawa. While Sony is reportedly more interested in the company’s anime and video game divisions, Kadokawa is said to be shopping its wares altogether, including its non-nerdy business ventures. Kadokawa also publishes adult books, television magazines, and more, for example, and the entire company is estimated to be worth over 640 billion yen, or around $4.2 billion, according to Macquarie Capital Securities Japan.
Sony has, of course, laid down that amount of money in the past. Buying Destiny maker Bungie also cost it $3.6 billion, for example. However, as Automaton points out, Sony has recently been dropping mountains of cash elsewhere – namely with reports of £1 billion (roughly $1.27 billion) buyouts of classic music rights from Queen and Pink Floyd that probably put a dent in the company’s wallet. That means if a bidding war were to begin between Sony and Kadokawa’s other main shareholders – Korea’s Kakao or China’s Tencent – then the PlayStation maker would likely back out completely.
Some investors reckon the money would be worth it solely to get Dark Souls maestro Hidetaka Miyazaki onboard, but for now, that’s all purely speculation as neither company has publicly reached a decision.
In the meantime, see our new games of 2024 and beyond guide.