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[Lunatic_Gamer]

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Bandai Namco Europe COO Arnaud Muller said the company has been working hard behind the scenes to insulate itself from the impact of industry consolidation, but that smaller publishers are having a harder time doing so.

“What I find is that we have to secure the IPs that we create with the studios we partner with,” he said. “When we invest in IP creation, when we invest in marketing for these IPs, we also have to keep in mind that we have to get some sort of security towards the future of the studio that develops this IP, if the IP doesn’t belong to us.

“So, this is something that we work on. You know, this spread of acquisition that we’re seeing is affecting some of the smaller publishers in their capacity to access the best studios in the world. But we at Bandai Namco have the financial means to secure these partnerships.

“We work on a number of measures to secure those partnerships — you’re talking first option rights, you’re talking IP ownership, you’re talking minority stakes in those studios,” Muller said. “So, there are ways to secure the relationships.”

M&A activity in the games industry hit a record $85 billion in 2021 and is expected to comfortably surpass that total this year.

Elden Ring publisher ‘working to secure IP and partnerships’ amid M&A spree | VGC

Bandai Namco says industry consolidation is cutting smaller publishers off from best studios…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[Bernd Lauert]

Sounds like Sony isn't buying From anytime soon.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Sounds like Sony isn't buying From anytime soon.

Not sure how you took that from this

 

[Sepia6]

Sounds like Sony isn't buying From anytime soon.

Wrong. The PS5 price increase is clearly aimed at raising additional cash to acquire From.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Sounds like Sony isn't buying From anytime soon.

Bandai Namco doesn't own From Software.

Kadokawa does. This thread topic is pretty redundant.

 

[reksveks]

Yeah, it didn't sound like it really hasn't got much to do with From but the second bit "we also have to keep in mind that we have to get some sort of security towards the future of the studio that develops this IP, if the IP doesn’t belong to us." does scream From.

I do think it would be a bidding war between Bandai and Sony for From or a Chinese giant.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Of course Bandai Namco are worried about From Software being snatched up by whomever, especially now that Elden Ring blew up. They own the IP and also Dark Souls. If, say, Sony would acquire them, Bandai is left with two IPs nobody would want to touch, mainly because of Froms pedigree as a top tier developer. They've invested quite much into these franchises so it's only natural to be worried about consolidation. Their stance on smaller publishers is valid too.

 

[Fbh]

Of course Bandai Namco are worried about From Software being snatched up by whomever, especially now that Elden Ring blew up. They own the IP and also Dark Souls. If, say, Sony would acquire them, Bandai is left with two IPs nobody would want to touch, mainly because of Froms pedigree as a top tier developer. They've invested quite much into these franchises so it's only natural to be worried about consolidation. Their stance on smaller publishers is valid too.

Yup the current acquisitions suck for smaller publishers.
They risk putting in the time and money to create something with an external developer, but then if it blows up and becomes successful some bigger publisher might just acquire the dev,

Bandai might own the Dark Souls and Elden Ring Ip but they probably know they aren't worth much without FROM.

 

[Markio128]

The only exclusive I’d like to see is Bloodborne 2 and the rest can stay multi-plat for all I care.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

They are talking about bandai namco... that's not related to from software nor do they own them.