And Deracine which was also with Japan Studio.
Like I said Iād love to see Sony blow their budget on Kadokawa. It fits their business. I just wonder how itās a more appetizing buy than Ubisoft or Capcom for them. For 2-4 billion above the Kadokawa price they could get either of those 2.
I donāt see Kadokawa spinning off FROM or Sony blowing their remainder budget allocation to acquire Kadokawa in full. I know it doesnāt need to be straight cash, but Iām sure that would drive a bidding war.
Wouldnāt be getting a new game from them for a ROI for another like 3 years, at least, either. And if itās a PS5 exclusive the comparison in revenue coming off Elden Ring would look real pitiful, though itād be an investment.
I canāt imagine what Nintendo would do to Sony if they buy Capcom, just buying EVO had them pissed lol, took Smash bros right outta there. I think they would purge that Monster Hunter team down to the last iota of talent, which is what has saved Capcom from acquisitions and hostile takeovers.
Long standing ties. Kadokwa and From are to Sony what Bethesda were to MS
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Like I said beforeā¦ 
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This guy is 100% stating facts: https://twitter.com/pior_geracao/status/1516259250003230723?s=20&t=glL2rXrWGwGETxkm_YK4qQ
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of course the tweet was just one dudeās speculation. still, some say theyāre gonna buy them anyone despite none of these sony rumors panning out lol.
This is one acquisition that will help both companies equally.
FromSoftware will get access to game engines and tech that they really need + PlayStation Studios will learn so much from FromSoftwareās art direction, world-building, and gameplay mechanics. Imagine an Elden Ring sequel with Demon Soul (PS5) level polish, stability, visuals, and performance.
What is M&A?
Mergers and Acquisitions
No. Ubisoft and Capcomās base price is 5b. Starting price. They would cost at least around 7b. Probably 8b with bidding involved.
Yes, and Kadokawa carries a market cap of 3.5 billion usd so in order to buy them Sony would be spending around 5 billion. So 2-4 billion usd above that would get them one of those 2.
So heās merely acknowledging rumors that Sony is eyeing From? Have we had any rumors about From by reliable sources? I recall only things likeā¦itās rally big, bigger than Kojima etc.
I really Xbox would get them, especially since they want to do better with Japanese games and the market and this studio is super popular again and they have a fantastic track record. You can depend on them.
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Yeah, I realized later that 2-4b on top of Kadokawa premium is possible. I do think that Sony has a hard cap on 5b to spend.
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Personally I also canāt see Phil just sitting by and not at least making a good bid, he knows very well how beloved ER now is and this studio, their track record and maybe it could actually be their foothold into Japan. It sure would take care of not having a big Japanese studio, I know they have Tango but itās not on the same level of popularity as FS.
We speculate a lot about Sonyās remaining budget, but does anyone really know?
It would suck if Sony were to get them, because thereās no doubt they will make the games exclusive, theyāre not gonna Bungie it.
I agree with you. The other issue is that Sony owns Crunchyroll and Funimation. If they start buying Kadokawa or other anime companies you start getting into Vertical Integration concerns. As they pretty much wholly own the pipeline of how anime is distributed in North America. Yes, people can still buy anime from retail stores but thatās not a common way to consume the media anymore.
Yes, services like hi-dive exist but they have such a small market share itās like someone making soda out of their basement and trying to sell it and coke being like see this is why we can buy Pepsi. Yes, anime is on Netflix and to a lesser extent Amazon but itās not new anime. Itās not day and date. Itās mostly things that have been around a while with the occasional new series.
They could probably get away with purchasing a smaller anime studio but a large company like Kadokawa I feel like would draw a lot of oversight concerns and I donāt think Kadokawa would still fromsoft without someone grossly overpaying as just now has all the work they have been doing paid off. Why would sell a company that is surging. i canāt even imagine how big the next the title after elden ring will be for them.
I think anime is too narrow to be honest, the competition is probably considered TV and streaming companies in general.
The thing with anime is kinda similar to gaming - you kinda can own big distribution points but new IPs for anime or manga pop up left and right. Thatās why I am saying that Microsoft should be able to get away with Ubisoft, T2 etc. Because it is kind Sony anime style situation - nobody cares because it is Sony - but basically even with Sonyās hold on anime , other studios and services can produce the content and new great IPs might appear out of nowhere.
As of 2020 Anime industry is 24.23 billion a year and expected to be worth 43.73 billion by 2027. Its a fairly fast growing market right now. You also run into the issue that Vertical Integration is illegal in the united states. So regardless of size doing so is prohibited by law in the united states at least. In the gaming space no company wholly owns distribution of said media the way Sony has anime locked down in America.