Elden Ring and Bloodborne developer FromSoftware's parent company Kadokawa has a bursting portfolio of video games, anime, and manga. And now that Sony's become the publisher's largest shareholder – a deal struck in 2024 – Kadokawa is planning on stretching that portfolio even wider with a boatload of new manga IPs.
The company's president Takeshi Natsuno, as translated by Automaton, tells Japanese newspaper The Nikkei that Kadokawa hopes to grind out 9,000 original publications by 2027. It previously aimed to reach the (in comparison) more modest goal of 7,000 manga and light novel releases, but now Natsuno says Kadokawa will be able to crush that objective in 2025.
Sony wants to become an IP emperor, too. While announcing its increased stake in Kadokawa back in December, the publisher explained in a press release that both it and Kadokawa want "to maximize both companies' IP value" by doing things like planning live-action film adaptations, producing anime, and expanding Kadokawa's game publishing.
"By combining Kadokawa's extensive IP and IP creation ecosystem with the strengths of Sony," Sony president Hiroki Totoki explains in a statement, "which has promoted the global expansion of a wide range of entertainment, including anime and games, we plan to work closely together to [...] [maximize] the value of its IP, and Sony's long-term vision, 'Creative Entertainment Vision.'"
This Vision sees all except, apparently, the Bloodborne 60fps patch that fans have spent years facedown on their hands and knees begging for. It's not the same, but at least we'll get 9,000 volumes of shonen and stuff as a consolation prize. I guess.
