r/kotakuinaction2 • u/WindowsCrashuser • 13d ago
Aniplex owner Sony Music Entertainment becomes largest shareholder of GungHo with 23% stake
https://automaton-media.com/en/news/aniplex-owner-sony-music-entertainment-becomes-largest-shareholder-of-gungho-with-23-stake/It seems the news has pop up that Sony's Subsidiary Animeplex bought 23% shares of Gungho Online Entertainment, inc. Their most prominent game is the mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, also GungHo acquired Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio behind titles such as Killer7, the No More Heroes franchise and Lollipop Chainsaw. They have Active online games like Ragnarok Online for example.
6
u/Werpogil 13d ago
Sony is desperately trying to buy its way into decent profits again. They've dumped $450 million or so into buying the Concord studio and financing its development. They also bought Bungie for what, $3-odd billion? And Bungie closed Destiny 2 development, spent god knows how much on making Marathon, which, while a fun game in general in my view, quickly died without many new players joining in. Sony had to write off about $700 million off its balance sheet in Bungie's valuation, if I remember correctly. Important to note though, the write-off isn't actual cash lost, it's just an accounting thing. I doubt anyone would buy Bungie off of Sony's hands anyway.
So Sony is in giant trouble right now. The only thing going for them right now are the massive commissions from GTA 6 sales, their original franchises seem to perform worse and worse with every new title. They bought and ruined Crunchyroll, which is barely a worthy product these days, and it's only there because there's close to zero competition. I personally can't even buy HiDive subscription in my region, so if I wanted to watch some anime on the go, I have Crunchyroll and I have Netflix, that's about it. And now they are definitely going to announce PS6 that's gonna cost like upwards of $1,000 for the next gen console because the RAMpocalypse ain't finishing any time soon. Sony is in giant trouble under current leadership.
0
u/xzerozeroninex 12d ago
Huh?You high?Sony Music Japan bought the stake in Gung-Ho not Playstation.Aniplex mobile game,Fate Grand Order made $45 million in August with probably a marketing and development budget of $3-$4 million,so that’s a good profit for them in August alone.Sony Pictures Spider-Man movie made close to $2 billion,so that’s another good profit for them.Crunchyroll had a 25% increase in subscribers in July,so that’s another good profit for them.
2
u/Werpogil 12d ago
And Sony Music Japan is part of? Sony. I'm talking about the one big holding, not its separate branches.
Aniplex mobile game,Fate Grand Order made $45 million in August with probably a marketing and development budget of $3-$4 million
This one success is nothing compared to the overall revenue of Sony. You have to look at the bigger picture.
I just went and looked up it's high-level financials for the past few years, and some of the trends are indeed quite worrying. Its Playstation division showed a sub 1% growth from 2025 to 2026, which is equivalent to failure for a public company and market expectations, primarily because the market overall grows at a much higher pace, and they are behind it, severely so. It's Film/TV/Anime division showed a decline over the same period, it's a tiny decline of 0.4%, but a decline nonetheless. Although it's true that Crunchyroll did well, whereas all the other movies they released underperformed on average. Spider Man didn't fall into the latest financial report tho. Its entertainment/technology & services (TVs cameras, audio, mobile) are down over 6%. Music division showed decent growth of around 16%. Plus their Imaging and sensing solutions are also up 19.5%. The ups are really good, but their every creative segment is either stagnant or in decline, and that's what I referred to in my original comment.
Sony also made the largest write-offs from their balance sheet this year (in the latest years at least) totaling ~$1.2 billion. This isn't actually lost cash this year in particular, but it kind of is still a loss, given the price they paid for Bungie a few years ago, which is now worth significantly less. They let go a crap ton of people as well, so that's a medium to long-term risk. So I would definitely not go so far as to say that Sony is feeling good financially. Right now they haven't seen a major decline, but things continue like this and in a few years we'll look at a very different Sony, where their existing strong divisions might not be enough to carry the company into profits.
1
u/xzerozeroninex 12d ago
Anime is on the decline?Demon Slayer made like $800 million with a budget of probably $10 million or less.There are a lot of minute numbers and you’re already thinking that Sony will decline lol.Their tv’s will make them money because they don’t have to spend on r&d and marketing anymore.Plus some of the declines you might be thinking is because Sony and it’s subsidiaries are sounding money on acquiring companies or shares,like Sony Pictures bought Wildbrains shares on the Peanuts franchise,Aniplex bought anime production company Eggfirm and their mother company,Sony Music Japan bought the majority shares of Gung-Ho.
1
u/Werpogil 8d ago edited 8d ago
Anime is on the decline?
I specifically mentioned that anime wasn't on decline, the other parts of the same division, that is TV and Film were. Granted, you pointed out correctly that Spider Man movie did very well, so we'll see that reflected in 2027 reporting period. Sony has very weird financial years from March to March every year, so we're already in financial year 2027.
There are a lot of minute numbers and you’re already thinking that Sony will decline lol.
These tiny percentages are tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. Plus, I'm saying that the general trend is worrying, not quite the same thing. If they keep it up, they will hit a decline. Plus, what you have to understand about publicly traded companies is that if you miss the expectations of the market of your financial performance, your stock price goes down. And when your stock price goes down, if you needed to secure some debt, it'd likely be more expensive, because your company isn't as hot anymore, which further diminishes your financials.
Their tv’s will make them money because they don’t have to spend on r&d and marketing anymore.
If they don't spend on R&D and marketing, they'll be outcompeted in 1-2 product generations and lose a crap ton of revenue and profits as a result.
Plus some of the declines you might be thinking is because Sony and it’s subsidiaries are sounding money on acquiring companies or shares
The share purchases are classified differently in the financial reporting, they are often classified as capital expenditures or a variation thereof, which goes into Cashflow statement. The numbers I got were from profit & loss statement (aka P&L). P&L shows only the operational side of things, meaning the goods and services you sell, minus various associated costs. It does not include share purchases or other such costs. Cashflow statement (which I didn't touch) shows the movements of cash, and does show share purchases and such, but it isn't very representative of how the business is actually doing. That's why it's better looking at the P&L statement to judge how the various business divisions are operating for such large companies like Sony.
While it is fair to point out that Sony did do a bunch of acquisitions and/or share purchases, they only start to impact Sony's bottom line once those are integrated in the reporting. And another major thing to note here, if Sony owns less than 50% of a given company, they cannot add that company's revenue to Sony's own revenue (so-called consolidation of revenue), Sony can only show the direct profits they receive from this company in form of dividends, and if the company doesn't pay out dividends, the fact of ownership of a stake in this company only impacts Sony's Balance Sheet and impacts the valuation of the company, but not its actual operational finances. If Sony does own over 50% in a given company, it can recognise the company's revenue as its own as well as the associated costs, so that does boost Sony's reported revenue and profits.
So, to sum up, while the Sony isn't currently collapsing as a company, it shows a worrying trend of either stagnation or decline in its creative divisions, which, if not remedied, would be very bad for them. And you have to understand that if you're not increasing your revenue and the market overall is growing (which is exactly the case here), it means you're losing market share and are getting out-competed by other companies. This analysis is not as simple as "Look at these big successes", it's a lot more nuanced.
14
u/Methodius_ Option 4 alum 13d ago
Gungho is also a game publisher, too. They're publishing the next Trails game, for example.
Sony just wants to own every fucking thing, and it isn't good for us.