Sony Group Corporation, the company behind Playstation, has signed an agreement with Kadokawa Corporation to form a strategic capital and business alliance.

This news comes shortly after rumors began to circulate that Sony was planning to acquire Kadokawa outright. Instead, this agreement has Sony become Kadokawa’s largest shareholder, accumulating approximately 10% of the company. This will presumably mean that Kadokawa will remain its own entity, but Sony will have a larger say in how the company runs. Sony reportedly has no plans to acquire additional shares after this deal goes through.

With regards to this partnership, Sony had this to say:

Kadokawa and Sony historically have collaborated on various projects, and through this capital and business alliance, intend to further strengthen our collaboration to maximize both companies’ [intellectual property] value globally and facilitate wider and deeper collaboration, such as potential joint investments in the content field, joint discovery of new creators, and joint promotion of further media mixes of both companies’ [intellectual property]. In the future, the two companies plan to discuss specific initiatives for collaboration, such as initiatives to adapt Kadokawa’s [intellectual property] into live-action films and TV dramas globally, co-produce anime works, expand global distribution of Kadokawa’s anime works through the Sony Group, further expand publishing of Kadokawa’s games, and develop human resources to promote and expand virtual production.

Kadokawa Corporation holds many subsidiaries across gaming, film, animation, novels, and other pop culture. This includes FromSoftware (Elden Ring), Spike Chunsoft (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Nastu-Mon), and more recently, ACQUIRE (Octopath Traveler, Mario & Luigi Brothership). It remains to be seen how Sony’s new position will affect Kadokawa’s gaming projects moving forward.

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