Kadokawa Corporation is a prominent company in the anime and manga industries, and it has a sizable presence in the gaming market, as well. The firm owns a handful of noteworthy developers, including Spike Chunsoft, Acquire Corp., Gotcha Gotcha Games, and even FromSoftware. Sony's potential acquisition of Kadokawa may mark a significant turning point for the gaming landscape, especially if the company decides to make its future games exclusive to PlayStation consoles. Depending on how things play out, this could be very detrimental for Nintendo and two of its franchises: Mario & Luigi and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.
What Sony Acquiring FromSoftware's Parent Company May Mean For Future Games
If it comes to fruition, Sony's rumored acquisition of FromSoftware's parent company could have major implications for the gaming industry.
Sony Acquiring Kadokawa May Impact the Mario & Luigi and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Series
The Latest Mario & Luigi Game Was Developed by Acquire, a Kadokawa Subsidiary
The Mario & Luigi series was originally created by a company called AlphaDream, which was established by former Square employees who had worked on games like Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy. AlphaDream developed a total of 7 M&L installments, two of which were Nintendo 3DS-exclusive remakes. After the commercial failure of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Insider Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, however, the studio went bankrupt and was ultimately shuttered in 2019, thus putting the Mario & Luigi franchise on hiatus.
Earlier this month, Nintendo finally brought M&L back with the release of Mario & Luigi: Brothership, the first brand-new game in the series (excluding remakes) in approximately 9 years. Unlike its predecessors, Mario & Luigi: Brothership wasn't developed by AlphaDream. Instead, it was created by Acquire, the studio most recognized for its work on the Octopath Traveler games. Since Acquire is a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, it will potentially become owned by Sony in the future and may therefore be prohibited from developing for non-PlayStation consoles. Assuming this happens, it's possible that the Mario & Luigi franchise may go on hiatus again if Nintendo isn't able to find a suitable replacement for the studio.
Spike Chunsoft, the Creators of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Are Also Owned By Kadokawa
Unfortunately, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon may also face a similar issue. This series of roguelike RPGs, which is a crossover between the Pokemon and Mystery Dungeon franchises, has been around for a long time. The first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game came out in 2005 on the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. Meanwhile, the franchise's most recent installment was released for the Switch in 2020. So far, every single Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game has been created by Spike Chunsoft, the developer behind hit visual novels like Zero Escape, Danganronpa, and AI: The Somnium Files.
Spike Chunsoft is, as previously mentioned, owned by Kadokawa Corporation. As such, it, like Acquire, may not be allowed to work with Nintendo in the future if it gets bought up by PlayStation. Unless Sony continues to operate Kadokawa and its subsidiaries as semi-independent companies, it is possible that the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series will be killed off entirely due to this proposed acquisition. Unlike Mario & Luigi, Nintendo doesn't have full control over the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon IP. Although it has the rights to Pokemon, it doesn't own Mystery Dungeon. If the Kadokawa buyout goes through, Mystery Dungeon will become a Sony first-party franchise since it's owned by Spike Chunsoft, and this may hinder the creation of future Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.