Sony acquires a slice of the Bandai Namco pie, snagging a stake in Elden Ring
Sony has struck a “strategic enterprise alliance settlement” with Bandai Namco, additional strengthening its ties to Elden Ring and FromSoftware. The partnership was introduced on July 24 after Sony bought a 2.5% stake in Bandai Namco. Each corporations have made it clear that anime and manga are the primary focus on this partnership.
Sony and Bandai Namco stated in a joint assertion: “By way of this enterprise alliance and Sony’s funding in Bandai Namco, as two of the main Japanese leisure corporations, Bandai Namco and Sony will concentrate on increasing the fan group for IP comparable to anime and manga all over the world and strengthening engagement, significantly within the anime discipline the place fast market development is anticipated, whereas merging their strengths to create new and emotionally transferring experiences for followers, and on account of these efforts maximize the worth of IP.”
The assertion additionally mentions “the enlargement of works in addition to services primarily based on IP developed by Bandai Namco.” This appears to recommend Sony may have a hand in creating new content material round Bandai Namco’s IP, which might imply we might get extra manga and anime spin-offs of Elden Ring, Darkish Souls, Tekken, and different Bandai Namco franchises.
In fact, Elden Ring is already getting a highly-anticipated live-action movie adaptation directed by Alex Garland and produced by A24. Nonetheless, on the time of writing Sony would not have a direct hand in that challenge.
Elden Ring and Darkish Souls have each had manga spin-offs, however neither has an anime collection but (regardless of whispers of a Darkish Souls anime again in 2023). Likewise, Tekken obtained a Netflix anime in 2022, Tekken: Bloodline, however it was met with lackluster critiques.
So, it might be thrilling to see Sony adapt a few of Bandai Namco’s largest manufacturers into anime and manga collection (if performed proper, in fact). That is the second main step Sony has taken in that route. Again in December 2024, Sony additionally grew to become the biggest stakeholder in Kadokawa, FromSoftware’s mother or father firm.
That partnership additionally emphasised movie, TV, and anime diversifications of Kadokawa’s IP, with the press launch particularly mentioning “initiatives to adapt KADOKAWA’s IP into live-action movies and TV dramas globally, co-produce anime works, [and] increase world distribution of KADOKAWA’s anime works by means of the Sony Group.”
On prime of that, Sony bought the anime-focused streaming service Crunchyroll in 2020 in a $1.2 billion acquisition. Between all three offers, it is abundantly clear that Sony is betting its future on increasing its function within the anime and manga world, significantly by means of videogame licenses.
As thrilling as that would doubtlessly be, some followers are involved these partnerships might imply future Bandai Namco video games will launch as PlayStation exclusives. Sony was the Japanese writer for Demon’s Souls (and revealed the 2020 remake), so it is definitely potential Sony is aiming to collaborate on FromSoftware video games once more. Nonetheless, it is most likely too quickly to fret about console exclusivity, particularly contemplating Sony has been porting increasingly more PlayStation exclusives over to Xbox lately.
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