Word on the street is that Sony is in talks to buy Kadokawa, which you might know as the main shareholder of Dark Souls and Elden Ring studio FromSoftware, but which also owns other video game companies like Spike Chunsoft, Acquire, Gotcha Gotcha Games, and FromNetworks, a substantial chunk of the manga industry, a publishing arm that is responsible for many of Japan’s still-remaining gaming magazines (including Famitsu), and anime studios like Doga Kobo ENGI, Studio KADAN, and Raging Bull. The list goes on. Hoovering up the Japanese mega-conglomerate is definitely an idea, but here’s another: Don’t!

  • emax_gomax@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Does Japan not have… like… an anti monopoly board. This is an insane merger to even consider. It would make an entity so large it could dominate multiple media industries.

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Sony would essentially own the anime and manga industry and be able to dictate monetization practices as well as trends. I find that even more concerning than the Fromsoft acquisition and that’s saying something. Nothing good can come from this whatsoever.

  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    4 days ago

    M$ monopolizes swathes of the game industry (and several other computer related areas) while Sony monopolizes nearly everything else media related. This is NOT how market competition is supposed to happen.

    BTW, Gotcha Gotcha Games is the owner of RPG Maker and Pixel Game Maker, make of that what you will.