Mr. Idea Box Posted November 20 Share Posted November 20 Well, this was certainly something to chew on. Apparently, Sony wants to buy Kadokawa, owner of FromSoftware's gaming library and manga/anime properties like Azumanga Daioh and The Devil Is a Part-Timer. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/sony-talks-buy-media-powerhouse-behind-elden-ring-sources-say-2024-11-19/ For all the talk gaming fans are spewing about Microsoft buying countless gaming IPs for Xbox, the same is happening at Sony for Crunchyroll. Yeah... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman Posted November 20 Share Posted November 20 It’s worth noting most of their IP’s are creator owned but this is still terrible and should not go through. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naraku360 Posted November 20 Share Posted November 20 46 minutes ago, Mr. Idea Box said: Well, this was certainly something to chew on. Apparently, Sony wants to buy Kadokawa, owner of FromSoftware's gaming library and manga/anime properties like Azumanga Daioh and The Devil Is a Part-Timer. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/sony-talks-buy-media-powerhouse-behind-elden-ring-sources-say-2024-11-19/ For all the talk gaming fans are spewing about Microsoft buying countless gaming IPs for Xbox, the same is happening at Sony for Crunchyroll. Yeah... Huh, didn’t take FromSoftware for an Azumanga Daioh kinda company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketch Posted November 21 Share Posted November 21 Kadokawa is on a ton of production committees. If this goes through it's going to give Sony a piece of the majority of the anime industry in Japan as well as a major book publisher. It would also add Book Walker, Comic Walker, J Novel and Yen Press to establish the manga / novel publishing stone in the infinity gauntlet beside the anime stone, the online market stone, the video game stone, and the film and television stone. The book angle is way more distressing than the rest of the Kadokawa anime getting distributed by a branch of Sony, they already get a whole lot of those between Crunchyroll and Aniplex. Owning the majority of FromSoftware is small potatoes compared to that. But the way Microsoft is fumbling non-stop has me concerned that PlayStation will be the only high-end console on the market while Nintendo does its own thing with underpowered hybrid consoles. I don't care if XBOX drops out but I don't want PlayStation to be the only option besides PC and Nintendo. People who are saying "keep that same energy you had about MicroSoft buying up Bethesda and ActiBliz being good thing" regarding this buyout are absolute morons. It's not even slightly comparable. Don't even get me started on the possibility of censoring content before it even leaves Japan much less once it gets over here but thankfully as censor happy as Sony has become with video games, they haven't really gone that direction with anime with a few exceptions. But manga and novels often push beyond what's acceptable for television in Japan so if they crack down on manga and novels that could certainly change things. But in general, nothing good can come from one corporation having such a massive foot print in US side of Japanese media distribution much less having an even bigger one in Japan. Unfortunately, Japan's anti-trust laws are even more of a joke than the US anti-trust laws so this very well could happen and the thought of it (especially owning Book Walker and Yen Press) makes me want to vomit repeatedly. Sony took Crunchyroll, FUNimation and RightStuf and combined them and the chimera is demonstrably worse than any of them were at their own personal worst. RightStuf was pretty golden so it has fallen the hardest. They used to have the highest quality package shipping and customer service and you bet your ass Crunchyroll Store doesn't even come close. And the Bluray releases are vastly inferior to when RightStuf's Nozomi was handling them. CR and FUNi were both crappy in their own ways and we got the worst of both worlds and there's still over 100 titles that didn't move over including Outlaw Star, all the old Tenchi series, The Slayers and Escaflowne. Even the (very great) dub of Stein's Gate isn't on there despite the sub being there. Make it make sense! I don't even want to think about how much this could ruin Book Walker and Yen Press (and all the other associated publishing arms). Book Walker has been my haven from bowing down to the Amazon overlords. And while Kadokawa is faaaaaar from sin but they're not Amazon. Sony? They're at least trying to be Amazon for Japanese media and merch and there doesn't seem to be anything that can stop them from consuming more of the market. I really like to buy media legally but with every merger, I keep having less and less companies I can stomach paying for this stuff. 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KageRageX Posted November 29 Share Posted November 29 Should we just accept that the anime and gaming industries are about to crash and will not recover this time? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokeNirvash Posted November 29 Share Posted November 29 NEVER!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketch Posted November 29 Share Posted November 29 3 hours ago, Otakuninja9000 said: Should we just accept that the anime and gaming industries are about to crash and will not recover this time? I’m just going to enjoy old video games and old anime, mostly whatever I already own a copy of because obviously I don’t trust those things to remain conveniently available if they even are currently. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jman Posted Thursday at 02:25 PM Share Posted Thursday at 02:25 PM They didn’t buy it outright. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2024-12-19/sony-becomes-largest-shareholder-in-kadokawa-in-january/.219255 They bought 10% of the stock. Enough to influence the company and provide it liquidity to avoid a takeover (and as per Kadokawa executives, influence a shake up of upper management) but they don’t own it completely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Idea Box Posted Thursday at 03:32 PM Author Share Posted Thursday at 03:32 PM 1 hour ago, Jman said: They didn’t buy it outright. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2024-12-19/sony-becomes-largest-shareholder-in-kadokawa-in-january/.219255 They bought 10% of the stock. Enough to influence the company and provide it liquidity to avoid a takeover (and as per Kadokawa executives, influence a shake up of upper management) but they don’t own it completely. You know what? More companies should take this option, instead of complete acquisition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketch Posted Thursday at 08:56 PM Share Posted Thursday at 08:56 PM Seems like possibly the best outcome to avoid buyouts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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