As spotted by GamesRadar, Ybarra weighed in on the hot news of the week—the report that Sony was sniffing around Kadokawa, which was later confirmed in a statement which said Kadokawa had received “an initial letter of intent to acquire the company’s shares.” In what I would argue is a rather bold claim, Ybarra tweeted: “If Sony does purchase FromSoftware, it’s probably a top 2 acquisition in video gaming in the last 15+ years if not ever (the other being Minecraft to Microsoft for only $2.5B).”
Ybarra says that FromSoftware is “incredible,” creating games that are “AAA and epic,” whatever that means. “The only thing bigger would be buying Valve or Nintendo,” Ybarra concludes. “And I don’t see either of those happening in any scenario. Exciting times.”
Now listen, I agree that Sony snagging a juggernaut like Kadokawa is a pretty big deal. The conglomerate has its fingers in all sorts of pies—videogames, film, anime and manga, the latter of which Sony has undeniably been trying to increase its ownership of in recent years—but I’m not sure I’d exactly liken it to a Valve or Nintendo-level acquisition. Hey, maybe I’m wrong, and I’m greatly underestimating Kadokawa’s power.
I do find it interesting that Ybarra is only focusing on the FromSoftware part of the potential acquisition here, too. Like I said, Kadokawa encompasses far more than that, and I’d bet that Sony has its eyes on far more than just the videogame developers it could get its hands on. After all, Sony already owns Crunchyroll, which it merged with its earlier acquisition of Funimation back in 2022. Anime and manga feels like one of those corners of the industry that’s not slowing down anytime soon, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Kadokawa’s giant publishing operations are the bigger prize to come out of all this. Though say it with me, folks: Consolidation of the industry is bad for everyone!
