Sony has increased its shares in FromSoftware owner Kadokawa as the two companies agree to form a “strategic capital and business alliance”.
And so the enshittification begins…
Nah, they only increased their share size. Means Sony didn’t outright buy them like people feared.
Yeah but they put themselves in a much better position if the standard process Falls through. They’re now the largest shareholder in the company, and while they only have 10% of the shares since they are the largest shareholder they have some swing now. And if they wanted to they’re closer than any other shareholder and getting the majority share which would make it easier for a hostile takeover.
They are likely trying to keep this a friendly takeover via acquisition if at all possible, due to the fact that if they attempted to do this via hostile takeover, from software would almost certainly claim a Clayton Act violation in the US which would Force the decision to go into legal proceedings in the court under Monopoly clause, and would also almost certainly Force the FTC into investigating whether or not it would be considered anti-competitive.
That’s just in the US though, I’m not sure what other Monopoly law exist outside that but generally the US is considered to be one of the more lenient when it comes to monopolies so I’m sure it only gets stricter.
Agreed, that’s better than them acquiring FromSoft. But they’re the largest shareholder now. I’d be surprised if it’s just business as usual, but I’d love to be wrong…
They’ll almost definitely make all games at least times exclusives going forward if not full now that they are majority shareholder.
Everyone is fearing what they will do to Fromsoft, but they’re probably more focused on getting all those anime distribution rights. Kadokawa owns so much anime…
Yeah. I just saw an email from Sony about upgrading ps+ to get crunchy roll access included in your yearly subscription. I don’t do a lot of anime( literally only dipped my toe in this year to learn what Gundam was) but I see this being a direction for the non game divisions of Sony. They are still one of the biggest movie distributors I believe as well as other media and entertainment.
My only concern with this, is that if Sony owns the studio I’m worried that the entire company will become a PlayStation exclusive.
I really hope that this case goes in front of the FTC(at least in the states), and if it’s allowed through a contingency is put in place forbidding this.
But personally I don’t think this should be allowed in the first place, especially with a company that is already acquired studios. Just like I didn’t agree with the Activision acquisition
Could the FTC even stop them? Neither company is American.
Indirectly yes, it does get stickier when neither company is US based but, they can forbid the sale of their product in the states if the acquisition went through, so essentially if i understand the process right, it would be forced to be separate companies in the US, but merged in other countries, but they could straight out just ban the products from sale period in the country as a blanket statement as well, but it’s unlikely they would go that drastic
