Sony and Bandai Namco want to continue expanding Japanese content, which is why the two giants are entering a partnership.
Sony and Bandai Namco are entering a strategic partnership. Both companies have officially confirmed the agreements. As part of the deal, Sony has purchased 2.5% of Bandai Namco's shares for around $400 million. Sony hopes this will further strengthen its position in the Japanese entertainment market.
Possible Partnership Impacts
The main focus of the partnership for both companies is to expand the communities around anime and manga by developing new works and products based on Bandai Namco IPs. Rapid market growth is expected in the anime sector in particular, which is prompting companies to expand and maximize their IPs in this area.
This could mean, among other things, that popular games such as Elden Ring or Tekken could get an anime adaptation in the future.
For Bandai Namco, the partnership primarily means that they can leverage Sony's expertise. In particular, Sony's knowledge in the areas of marketing, sales, and merchandising can help Bandai Namco make optimal use of and expand its IPs. Bandai Namco recently set itself the goal of improving fan engagement and providing optimized services and products.
Some fans are concerned that the partnership could pave the way for Bandai Namco games to be released exclusively on PlayStation in the future. However, this is rather unlikely, especially since Sony is porting more and more games to Xbox and Switch, which shows that Sony is not currently seeking exclusivity.
Cooperation Is Nothing Brand-New
The two companies have collaborated in the past: they both invested in the new operator of the anime database MyAnimeList, for example. This also underscores the partnership's goal of expanding anime. Sony has been showing interest in anime and its growing market share for quite some time now.
In 2021, Sony purchased anime streaming giant Crunchyroll for over $1 billion. With this new partnership, Sony simply wants to further consolidate the plan it has been pursuing for some time and gain a foothold in the growing anime industry. In any case, it will be exciting to see how these companies will continue to work together to promote the distribution of Japanese content and how they will engage the enthusiasm of fans.