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[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Apparently Kadokawa had a business call not too long ago. Here's some of what was outlined:

Kadokawa will use their expertise to Create New IP while Sony/PlayStation will help Fund, Distribute, & Publish these IPs into new Movies, TV Shows, & Videogames!

With Sony/PlayStation's Help, Kadokawa is increasing the amount of games they are currently developing & increase the quality of their games

Pulled out mentions specifically related to Kadokawa & Sony.

Now, specifically Sony Corp is mentioned, not SIE, but I'd find it hard to believe that SIE aren't involved in some capacity considering their position and wealth of resources & knowledge in the core gaming market. Whether it also involves From Software is less clear, considering they purchased the publishing rights for Elden Ring from Bandai-Namco (with help from Sony/SIE), so this may not mean too much (yet) for SIE x From Software in terms of new co-developed or published games.

While most of what's here seems to reiterate points the two companies already outlined in their announcement of the strategic alliance, it's nice to get some more details and see where this could lead gaming-wise between the two companies. With some of the activity happening around Bloodborne ATM tho, I don't think it's impossible that something's brewing between SIE and From Software that could maybe get revealed later this year.

EDIT: Eh, reading a bit more at the details and after seeing some people point it out, sounds like the gaming-side part of this is Sony Corp helping bolster Kadokawa's publishing and distribution efforts? If so that is kind of disappointing as it means there's little in this gaming-related, outside of probably built-in marketing deals.

Aspects of co-development and co-funding seem confined to anime and live-action adaptations. But maybe I misread the gaming part, or there are more details to come out a bit later. Let's see what happens.

 

[Mr Moose]

Bloodborne movie.

 

[nial]

And Patchwork Heroes 2 at last.

 

[GHG]

Missed opportunity for a public poll.

 

[Blank Space Invader]

Video games, please. That's what people buy video game consoles for, not multiverse productions.

 

[adamsapple]

Bloodborne Manga confirmed.

 

[Maddoxswe]

Missed opportunity for a public poll.

I can give you my answer, HELL YES!

 

[Ebrietas]

Hulst already revealed something is brewing between SIE and From a couple of years ago.

 

[DenchDeckard]

It's gotta be a HELL YES! vote, surely?

This sounds like, thanks to Sony publishing that from soft are going to be able to make more games, right?

That's amazing news!

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

Wonder if that means some exclusive souls like games for Playstation, if it is, then Hell Yeah

 

[bitbydeath]

With Sony/PlayStation's Help, Kadokawa is increasing the amount of games they are currently developing & increase the quality of their games

I look forward to GAF claiming they will be soulless with better graphics.

 

[Zacfoldor]

There's your Bloodborne. Takedowns now this. Bloodborne.

SONY! DONT' RELEASE WHATEVER BLOODBORNE GAME YOU ARE MAKING ON PC.

 

[mansoor1980]

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Missed opportunity for a public poll.

There's a poll there, I just didn't know anything else to ask

Bloodborne Manga confirmed.

That would actually be pretty awesome.

Wonder if that means some exclusive souls like games for Playstation, if it is, then Hell Yeah

Hope so, but re-read the 'gaming' part and there's a possibility things there are a lot more rote. But, maybe that is specifically between Kadokawa & Sony Corp; From Software & SIE could have their own agreements in place that would be revealed later on.

 

[Sooner]

Past collaborations gave us Bloodborne and birthed the entire Souls genre, so yeah...

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Good to see them reinvesting in Japan.

California’s finished and they know it

 

[Kataploom]

As long as they're not censored and release day and date on other platforms, idgaf

 

[yogaflame]

I hope this will help strengthen again Sony's Japan studio and to shift away from Sony west studio in California, so PS can have an excellent 1st and 2nd party Sony exclusives without those twisted DEI and woke crap. Bloodborne sequel and demon soul sequel for Ps exclusives will suffice.

 

[bitbydeath]

As long as they're not censored and release day and date on other platforms, idgaf

You must be new to Sony.

 

[proandrad]

Bloodborne is going to be a PS6 exclusive isn’t it…

 

[BennyBlanco]

You must be new to Sony.

You must be new to Sony Corp. Aniplex has recently published Switch/PC exclusives lol. There is zero mention of SIE in these slides.

In fact, it sounds like they want to start publishing their own games. But I bet they keep working with Namco too.

 

[bitbydeath]

You must be new to Sony Corp. Aniplex has recently published Switch/PC exclusives lol. There is zero mention of SIE in these slides.

In fact, it sounds like they want to start publishing their own games. But I bet they keep working with Namco too.

Aniplex isn’t a great example.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Aniplex isn’t a great example.

How do you figure? That’s their anime division, and that’s what the investment in Kadokawa is primarily about.

 

[ANIMAL1975]

Bloodborne pashinko please.

 

[bitbydeath]

How do you figure? That’s their anime division, and that’s what the investment in Kadokawa is primarily about.

Have a look at what Aniplex distributed before.

 

[yogaflame]

Bloodborne is going to be a PS6 exclusive isn’t it…

Remake for Ps5, and Bloodborne 2 for Ps6 launch, that is what I think will happen. But I will be so happy if Bloodborne 2 will still be for Ps5.

 

[Saber]

Hopefully this means strong bonds with Japan and less west crap.

Bloodborne movie.

With Tom Holland as Gherman.

 

[March Climber]

 

[yurinka]

You must be new to Sony Corp. Aniplex has recently published Switch/PC exclusives lol. There is zero mention of SIE in these slides.

In fact, it sounds like they want to start publishing their own games. But I bet they keep working with Namco too.

SIE is the Sony Group division who published Kadokawa/FromSoft Games. Not Aniplex.

SIE is the one who bought a 14% of FromSoft a couple years ago, not Aniplex. And mentioned plans to work together in games and also potential movie/tv/anime adaptations. Not Aniplex.

SIE is the one who owns PlayStation Productions, who makes the live action movie and tv show adaptations of games mentioned there, not Aniplex.

SIE is the one who can help with promotion of their console games worldwide mentioned there and in the 3 ways deal they made in the past with Kadokawa and CyGames, not Aniplex.

SIE is the one who made joint productions with Kadokawa and (separatedly) FromSoft since the PS1 days, not Aniplex.

But yes in addition to publish some of their games, SIE can also get the marketing deal of all future self published or published by Bandai Namco (or somebody else) Kadokawa games. Aniplex could publish or adapt some Kadokawa manga/anime IP too.

 

[nial]

SIE is the one who made joint productions with Kadokawa and (separatedly) FromSoft since the PS1 days, not Aniplex.

You're correct with the rest, but did I miss anything here?

 

[yurinka]

You're correct with the rest, but did I miss anything here?

Since the PS1 and across all their platforms, PS got over 2 dozen FromSoft exclusives and another over multiple dozens of exclusives from different Kadokawa divisions/subsidiaries (as Kadokawa, Kadokawa Games-which got spun off renamed to Dragami Games-, Kadokawa Shoten, Enterbrain, Acquire, ASCII, ASCII Something Good, Agetec, ASCII MediaWorks, Media Factory, Spike Chunsoft...) they have or had.

Sometimes self published, sometimes published by SIE, sometimes published by somebody else. But always with SIE money (publishers make exclusive games because such platform holders pay them to do so, because if not they'd make more money publishing their games everywhere).

These folks have been working together since 30 years ago. There's a long history of PS exclusives inside Kadokawa.

In fact, now that I remember, ASCII was one of the creators of the MSX computer standard. Back in 1983/1984, Sony started to publish videogames for that computer. Sony even made their own MSX computer hardware and game controllers. Pretty likely they had deals with ASCII there too.

 

[EN250]

It's going to be so fun watching all the Kadokawa colabs and Asia stuff in general backed by Sony doing great while the Western games like Fairgame$ and other trash crash and burn at the same time

 

[nial]

The West vs. Japan thing is SO forced.

 

[MayauMiao]

I would love to see hack & slash Konosuba.

 

[BennyBlanco]

SIE is the Sony Group division who published Kadokawa/FromSoft Games. Not Aniplex.

SIE is the one who bought a 14% of FromSoft a couple years ago, not Aniplex. And mentioned plans to work together in games and also potential movie/tv/anime adaptations. Not Aniplex.

SIE is the one who owns PlayStation Productions, who makes the live action movie and tv show adaptations of games mentioned there, not Aniplex.

SIE is the one who can help with promotion of their console games worldwide mentioned there and in the 3 ways deal they made in the past with Kadokawa and CyGames, not Aniplex.

SIE is the one who made joint productions with Kadokawa and (separatedly) FromSoft since the PS1 days, not Aniplex.

But yes in addition to publish some of their games, SIE can also get the marketing deal of all future self published or published by Bandai Namco (or somebody else) Kadokawa games. Aniplex could publish or adapt some Kadokawa manga/anime IP too.

I’m not saying Aniplex is gonna be publishing FromSoft games, I’m saying Sony and SIE are seperate entities and there is nothing in the OP about SIE. Could Sony get a FromSoft exclusive? Of course. But they could’ve done that anyway, and there is nothing in the OP to suggest SIE is publishing their games.

 

[yurinka]

I’m not saying Aniplex is gonna be publishing FromSoft games, I’m saying Sony and SIE are seperate entities and there is nothing in the OP about SIE. Could Sony get a FromSoft exclusive? Of course. But they could’ve done that anyway, and there is nothing in the OP to suggest SIE is publishing their games.

Yes, the thread title is wrong: nothing in Kadokawa's report and slide mentioned anything about Sony publishing any game.

Mentioned joint investments, sharing IPs, helping in distribution, promotion, making adaptations etc. Things that lead to think (combined with Hermen's words when SIE bought FromSoft stocks) that they'll publish some game and that PlayStation Productions will make adaptations or that at least SIE will work with them in some way (like marketing deals or some timed exclusives).

But in that slide they don't say anything specifically that Sony will publish their games.

 

[bitbydeath]

and there is nothing in the OP to suggest SIE is publishing their games.

This

---

?

Sony/PlayStation will help Fund, Distribute, & Publish these IPs into new… Videogames!

With Sony/PlayStation's Help, Kadokawa is increasing the amount of games they are currently developing & increase the quality of their games

 

[BennyBlanco]

This

---

?

That is the twitter console warrior editorializing, and there is nothing about that in the slides. Not surprised OP took that bait though.

 

[Radical_3d]

Oh, so they’ll be making the same game they’ve been doing since 2009. hurraaaaa…

Spoiler

I’d probably still buy it and make a couple of runs, tho.

 

[bitbydeath]

That is the twitter console warrior editorializing, and there is nothing about that in the slides. Not surprised OP took that bait though.

This sums it up, financing and distribution means publishing.

There’s also this where they explicitly state the word publishing:

 

[mckmas8808]

Hulst already revealed something is brewing between SIE and From a couple of years ago.

Hopefully we see it later this year.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Would be stunned if Sony doesn't seal the deal within the next 18 months. I think maybe the leak may negotiations more difficult but after a cooling down period they'll revisit it.

They may have also been concerned with cash flow. They have about 10 billion in cash and maybe they're going to wait until the spin off their financial division.

When you look at PlayStation alone making 2.4 billion dollars in profit in a year and how buying Kadokawa would not just help boost Sony Group but SIE, it's a no brainer at the price. And now they only need to buy the remaining 90%.

We're talking about 90 percent of 3.842 billion USD which is 3.457 billion with a premium of 1.25 to 1.5. At most you're looking at spending 5.1 billion dollars but as little as 4.32 billion.

The bigger problem is that collectively all of Kadokawa probably makes about 120 million dollars per year, but they could make so much more with Sony, especially if Sony didn't cut Steam into sales on PC and used their own storefront. With Bluepoint supporting they could make the following within the next 6-7 years

Bloodborne Remaster/Remake
Demon's Souls 2
Elden Ring 2
Bloodborne 2

With an average sales price of 45 dollars and sales of 8 million, 8 million, 15 million, and 14 million, you'd generate 2.025 billion in revenue, largely operating income and 45 million copies sold. I think those sale amount are pretty conservative as well as the average sale price considering full royalties.

 

[bitbydeath]