The parent company of Elden Ring is impatiently awaiting its acquisition by Sony

The acquisition of Kadokawa by Sony has not even been finalized yet, but this transaction is already unanimous… Or almost. Last November, Reuters revealed these plans to the general surprise of the industry and players. Is Sony really about to add the parent company of Elden Ring and major manga franchises to its arsenal? The company’s ambitions were quick to be made official via a press release from Kadokowa shared the very next day. There has been radio silence since these revelations, but things are likely starting to get going behind the scenes.

After surprising growth in shares on the stock market for Sony and Kadokawa, the positive impact of the possible takeover is already being felt by employees. Testimonies collected by the Japanese media Bunshun – spotted and translated by Automaton – reveal the expectations of the Kadokawa teams regarding the future of the hierarchy. Since a terrible ransomware attack last summer at Kadokawa and Niconico, the reputation of Takeshi Natsuno – current president and CEO of the Japanese media conglomerate – has been at an all-time low.

The lack of support for the leak of employees’ personal data was not viewed favorably. “Indeed, a number of employees are unhappy with Natsuno’s management, which did not even bother to hold a press conference after personal information was leaked during the cyberattack. They therefore expect that Sony will first get rid of the current president in the event of a takeover of the company” explains an employee to Bunshun. The arrival of a new CEO is a dream internally, despite the possible excesses specific to such a takeover.

Kadokawa will never be the same

Members of the Kadokawa family, from the lineage that founded the company, were surprised by the many positive reactions to these announcements. On paper, bringing the conglomerate under the Sony umbrella sounds like a big victory. But some specialists prefer to nuance the situation. Analyst Takahiro Suzuki is absolutely not convinced that this maneuver and did not fail to make it known in the article by Bunshun.

“Kadokawa will lose its independence and management will become stricter” he explains without restraint. “If they want to continue to expand their business as freely as they have done so far, the acquisition would be a bad choice. They will have no choice but to prepare for publications that cannot lead to the creation of intellectual property without close monitoring and scrutiny.“Given the weight that Kadokawa represents in Japanese pop culture, one might say that a readjustment by Sony could prove fatal. Hopefully this won’t affect the development of the next game of From Software !

🟣 To not miss any news on the WorldOfSoftware, , .