Sony is reportedly acquiring Kadokawa, a huge Japanese conglomerate company that owns everything from video game studios to television and anime. This has led many fans to wonder what Sony could get if the deal goes through.
On the gaming side, Sony could get Spike Chunsoft, Acquire, Gotcha Gotcha Games, FromNetworks, and the 70 percent stage of FromSoftware that Kadokawa owns. Sony already owns a 14 percent stake in FromSoftware before the reported merger, which would put it far from owning the entire company.
The biggest losers from this potential takeover include Bandai Namco, which publishes many of Kadokawa’s games and works with its studios to make titles like the recently popular Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, the Souls games, and more. Nintendo also works with Spike Chunsoft and other Kadokawa companies to make titles like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.
The sheer scale of properties that Sony could be picking up here is massive, so to give you an idea of what Sony could own if the takeover goes through and what games and series might be under threat, here is a complete list of games, franchises, and companies that could soon follow Kadokawa to Sony.
Kadokawa video game companies that could join Sony
FromSoftware
FromSoftware is the biggest hook here on Kadokawa’s game division, with many franchises under its wings. Some of the popular series include:
Some smaller games are also on the list: Echo Night, Shadow Tower, Lost Kingdoms, Otogi, and more. But most FromSoftware fans will know the studio for the titles above.
Spike Chunsoft
Spike Chunsoft is an orthodox studio known mainly for a few franchises with a cult following and co-developing games for other publishers using its licenses. Some of the bigger Spike Chunsoft franchises include:
- The Sound Novel series
- The Mystery Dungeon series (Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is a licensed version of the franchise that is developed with Chunsoft’s permission, as an example)
- Zero Escape
- Fire Pro Wrestling
- Danganronbpa
- Conception
- Kenka Bancho
On top of these franchises, Spike Chunsoft also works closely with other studios to co-create games, some of which are massive. Spike Chunsoft recently worked with Bandai Namco to create Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero and helped Nintendo create Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games.
Spike Chunsoft is also a publisher for many Western third-party games in Japan. Witcher 3, Baldur’s Gate 3, Ark, Cyberpunk, and other huge Western franchises were only published in Japan, thanks to Spike Chunsoft.
Acquire
A recent acquisition in 2024, Acquire is better known for co-developing games over making its own franchises. It has worked with many studios like Nintendo and Square Enix to make recent games like Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Octopath Traveler, and the Tenchu: Stealth Assassins series, with the latter being for PlayStation.
Gotcha Gotcha Games
PC players might know Gotcha Gotcha Games for creating one of the best game makers on the market.
Pixel Game Maker MV, RPG Maker MV, and more maker games that let fans create their own games with a pre-built engine are popular among PC owners, especially in Japan.
Other companies Sony could acquire through Kadokawa takeover
Kadokawa isn’t just a games division, either. The studio owns a bunch of companies in other spaces outside of Interactive entertainment, which includes the following:
Publications
- BookWalker (and its subsidiaries, including GeeXPlus, Inc, and Trista)
- Choubunsha Publishing Co.
- Comic Walker
- eb Creative
- Japan Digital Library Service
- Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories
- Kadokawa Book Navi
- Kadokawa Future Publishing (and its subsidiaries like Media Factory)
- Kadokawa Game Linkage
- Kadokawa Uplink
- Mainichi GA Hakken
- Production Ace
- Gaspereau Press
Media Companies
- Dwango (and its subsidiaries like Niconico)
- Docomo Anime Store
- 80% of K.Sense
- Kadokawa Media House
- Kadokawa Uplink
- Kids Net
- Movie Walker
- T Gate
- Smile Edge
Films, TV, Anime, and Visuals
- Doga Kobo
- 53% of ENGI
- EuropaCorp Japan
- Glovision
- Japan Film Fund
- Kadokawa Anime
- Kadokawa Architecture
- Kadokawa Daiei Studio
- Nihon Eiga Satellite Broadcasting
- Movie Walker
- Studio Kadan
A host of other Japanese companies like ATX and other Kadokawa-licensed projects would fall into Sony’s hands, showing the sheer scale of what this takeover could do in Japan outside of just video games.
