Sony has been eyeing up a potential acquisition of Kadokawa, an enormous Japanese media conglomerate that owns the likes of Dark Souls developer FromSoftware, Danganronpa studio Spike Chunsoft, and more, and many of the conglomerate's employees are reportedly "thrilled at the prospect" of it.
Following reports of Sony and Kadokawa entering talks of a potential acquisition last month, Kadokawa quickly confirmed that while it had "received an initial letter of intent to acquire the Company's shares," nothing had actually been confirmed at that point.
However, it'd be a massive deal if it does go through. Kadokawa doesn't just own multiple game development studios and publishers, but also animation studios, book and manga publishers, and more. In a new report from Bunshun (which has been translated by Automaton), one veteran employee claims that others in the company are very excited since they're unhappy with its current leadership under CEO Takeshi Natsuno.
"The people around me are thrilled at the prospect of an acquisition by Sony. That's because there's a certain number of employees who are dissatisfied with the Natsuno administration, which didn't even bother to hold a press conference after peoples' personal information was leaked in the cyberattack," the veteran employee says, referring to a major cyberattack that occurred earlier this year. "They expect that if Sony were to acquire the company, they would get rid of the president first."
Even if employees themselves are keen, however, one analyst suggests that it might not be the best move for the company. In the same report, economic analyst Takahiro Suzuki predicts that Kadokawa's management would "become stricter" and the company would "lose its independence" if it was acquired. Suzuki goes as far to say that the acquisition "would be a bad choice" if Kadokawa still wants to "keep developing their business as freely as they have until now."
Suzuki's remarks seem to run parallel to discussions over future potential FromSoftware exclusivity deals a la Bloodborne, though even if Sony does acquire Kadokawa and FromSoftware with it, it's not guaranteed that the company would rush to throw away the massive multiplatform audience that the likes of Elden Ring have cultivated.
