Sony & Kadokawa

Sony has been positioning for an acquisition of Japanese media giant Kadokawa for awhile now. Kadokawa is both a force in the games industry (particularly through, though not limited to their ownership of Fromsoftware) and the anime industry. For their part, Sony has taken an interest in both these asset portfolios of Kadokawa, but the Tokyo-based Kadokawa was wanting a complete purchase of everything they have. In what is something of a compromise, Sony hasn’t gone and purchased Kadokawa in its entirety, but they have increased their shareholding in the Kadokawa, coming the largest single shareholder with 10% of shares. Although this development doesn’t put Sony in the position they were reportedly looking for earlier this year, the strengthening of their shareholdings deepens the working relationship between Sony and Kadokawa, which will probably lead to new collaborations between the two companies. This deal will also make it more difficult for any other company to purchase Kadokawa outright—something that Tencent was reportedly interested in.

Playing videogames, writing about videogames, considering videogames—that about sums it up. Videogames are the one hobby that I’ve kept since I was only little, zapping ducks on the NES or knocking out MR. X. And when I’m not enjoying classics from the bit generation of games or checking out those earliest of polygons, I’m probably playing something from today’s age of modern gaming: if I’m not complaining about it. Something I’m doing at the moment? I started dipping my toes in the vast sea of Kemco JRPGs.