Sony basically supported Kadokawa's pants with that 300+ million buyout. Plus their alliance will give Kadokawa access to new markets and fresh ways to generate income.
Honestly, it's a smart win/win for both parties without burning too much money/structure by both of them. Part of the reason why I find Japanese business deals so interesting. They opeate on a different scale, logic, reasoning and pacing dut to both culture and history. No career dick-waving moments here, yeah. Only smart and even agile (considering the size) business.
Yeah, and that is something I very much appreciate about how Japanese companies operate. Fiscal conservativeness has more advantages than drawbacks; meanwhile we're watching in real-time what blowing $80+ billion on publishers like a night in Vegas is doing for the Xbox division.
That's to say, basically forcing them to go 3P as console sales are dying a sad, miserable death into irrelevance. It didn't have to be that way, but that's the outcome when someone like Phil Spencer is leading your gaming division :/
Exclusive FROM games absolutely could have and should have been the reality in the case of an acquisition. It would be the right move from a business sense. Sony is about to enter a platform war with Nintendo and Valve that I am not sure they understand the magnitude of. Exclusive software and IP ownership is the only weapon they wield. Which they seem to be letting go of carelessly. They seem to believe people will just always buy their consoles no matter what. That there is no credible competition.
For the last decade they have faced a largely incompetent Xbox and a Nintendo with underpowered hardware and minimal third party support. But Switch 2 will be able to run very acceptable versions of almost any ps5 game. While having the strongest first party that is actually exclusive. And the market will be flooded with Steam OS “consoles” from various manufacturers, portable and stationary that can do everything a ps5 can and more. If Sony believes their own hype too much we may be looking at another ps2 to ps3 downfall or even worse.
NGL I agree with some of what you're mentioning because some time ago I brought up similar points. Granted, I was also a bit more pessimistic vs. where I am currently on the brand, and while some things I said at the time I still believe are true, I've re-evaluated them in a more fair and even-handed context.
That said, I do feel to some extent SIE aren't necessarily considering the likelihood companies like Nintendo and Valve push ahead with their own gaming ambitions, and how they could be stronger competitors to PS as indirect competitors than Xbox has been for the past 10 years. I've been saying that Nintendo should absolutely leverage their IP in securing platform-exclusive content in various 3P games to their platform, if they can't necessarily (or don't want to) compete with SIE on outright timed exclusivity or marketing deals. It will also prove increasingly useful for them as things like PC handhelds continue to persist and could (at least in some ways) pose greater competition to Switch over the years, certainly between Valve & Microsoft stepping up efforts there (and SIE as well, tho theirs won't be PC-based).
Also WRT Nintendo, you're right that Switch 2 will get more big 3P support than some people want to think. There's no reason why GTA6 won't be on Switch 2 if T2 are going to bring it to PCs with low-end spec support targeting system settings at or below whatever Switch 2 ends up providing. Publishers like Square-Enix and SEGA/Atlus are absolutely going to support Switch 2 much more than they did the first, same with Capcom. Switch 2 getting a port of Witcher 4 is pretty much a lock; the thing is even if Nintendo gets ports after PS and even PC, they can leverage their IP in content crossover for platform-exclusive content in versions for their system. By that I mean co-developing bonus content for versions of those games on their platform featuring their (Nintendo) IP. That's generally how universal and evergreen Nintendo's IP are.
Even so, I think SIE can more than manage that. But, they do need to increase the rate of software they publish, and they can't rely as much on 3P timed exclusivity deals when it seems like those 3P are less interested in taking them. So to me Sony/SIE's best option is to continue making strategic partnerships with key 3P (gaming or gaming/multimedia-focused) like what they've done with Kadokawa, Shift Up, Akatsuki etc. and leverage that for co-development of new IP and new games in legacy IP that SIE already have the rights to, and can publish. A lot of their IP would be valid for smaller AA games i.e around the scope of titles like Astro Bot or co-developed titles like Stray & Kena.
The thing is SIE have those types of connections and cache (combined with market presence) with 3P in a way no other platform holder does. Not Valve, not Nintendo, certainly not Microsoft. That's SIE's main asset and it's why making more key 3P strategic partnerships (share purchases, investments etc.) is overall a better idea than trying to outright acquire these huge publishers unless it's absolutely necessary to fend off a hostile threat. But it still has to result in more games, more variety and more exclusives for platforms in the PS ecosystem that SIE have ownership over.
It's not that i don't care about workers' rights, just to be clear. But i was in no hurry to join this media bandwagon of speculations and selective narratives around potential aquisition.
Without detailed information on the sales-profit ratio of the corporation's subsidiary entities, as well as long-term profitability forecasts or even strategic correlation with Sony's roadmap, it does not give us a sufficiently complete picture, at least not enough to conclude without any doubt that the employee in question will benefit from it at all.
Throwing money at a problem won't always fix it.
That said, the only perspective i can speak from is that of a customer. And i really don't wish for From to become an integral part of Sony, even if things may end that way in the near future. I don't know what the intentions of the buyer would be, whether he would like to profit from sales on all platforms from day one (which i would prefer) or use it as a bargaining chip in building his own monopoly (timed or full-on exclusives), none of this is written in the stars.
And if so, it's good that nothing will change for now, at least nothing that would take away from our own benefit.
TBF on the worker's rights stuff I was talking about the Reset members, not you or others here. Though still good to hear that is something you were considerate of.
True, ultimately when looking at these things we have to consider our own POV and what's ultimately best for us as customers. I do think there's a balance though and some people get too lopsided only thinking about their own interests even at the expense of most of the market or what the companies want. That's not a realistic thing to do. When news of this got out I wasn't really looking to confront it with "this acquisition shouldn't happen!" because that wouldn't suddenly make the acquisition attempts go away.
And I didn't hop on the "this is bad for gamers!" talk because not a single person who was trying that mentioned any genuine ways why it would be bad for gamers. "Take games away" okay and? From where, Xbox? Well some of these people didn't have that same energy when MS bought Zenimax and was wanting to make future Zenimax games Xbox-exclusive. Even now they don't like talking about it because they still hold out hope that maybe MS ends up doing it at a later date, it's not like they had a real change of heart. Plus like I said before, people pretending suddenly From Software games would get removed from Steam or PC were just not being genuine. The PSN issue in various countries without it is maybe the only substantive argument against the acquisition I saw in all of this from those types but...did they stop to think that maybe SIE could just....make PSN available in those countries? Or would that have not been enough and they'd just move the goalpost to something else because PSN not being in those countries was never actually their concern in the first place?
But it's whatever for now; Sony Corp aren't buying Kadokawa so people who had genuine reasons for perhaps not wanting the acquisition to go through should be happy. If their reasons were hypocritical i.e they had selfish reasons for wanting others like MS to buy ABK or stuff like that, then I hope they get exposed for being hypocrites because chances are they just want their favorite conglomerate to buy Kadokawa instead, they're just too scared to outright say it knowing they'd get called out for doing so.
Personally I think a strategic partnership works better for both parties involved as they all still have their autonomy and flexibility. It can still lead to a fuller acquisition down the line or maybe the partnership ends, who knows, anything is possible. But considering the companies involved here I think it makes more logical sense to have an optimistic outlook, considering they've had successful working relations in the past for years, even decades, now. A strategic partnership is just them taking that to the next step.
ShaiKhulud1989
suggested as that basically paints something of a soft full takeover that'd occur over time. But I also won't say I'm surprised with the outcome; Kadokawa were the ones who wanted to sell outright, Sony Corp were mainly interested in specific segments.en.wikipedia.org
