Bandai Namco will continue on Xbox despite Sony’s investment

The alliance focuses on anime, merchandising, and multimedia content, not on game exclusives.

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The movement has raised some alarms, but everything points to the fact that Xbox users can rest easy. Sony has announced a significant investment of $460 million in Bandai Namco, the well-known company behind franchises like Tekken, Elden Ring, and Dragon Ball. However, this operation does not imply a purchase, nor does it affect current agreements with other platforms like Xbox.

Sony has acquired 2.5% of Bandai Namco’s shares as part of a strategic business alliance. According to the official statement, the goal is to expand the global reach of Bandai’s anime and manga franchises, leveraging Sony’s power in audiovisual distribution and licensed products.

The Sony-Bandai Namco Alliance is Transmedia, Not Exclusive

The press release emphasizes that this collaboration aims to cover areas such as animation, music, and consumer products. There is no mention of any intention to limit future video games to a single platform. In fact, Bandai Namco and Sony had already worked together on various projects before this investment.

“Both companies plan to expand their collaboration to more areas, implementing initiatives such as the expansion of works, products, and services based on Bandai Namco licenses, leveraging Sony’s strengths in content production and distribution, as well as merchandising.”

This move is reminiscent of the similar investment Sony made in FromSoftware last year. In both cases, it has been a minority stake with corporate and transmedia purposes, without a direct impact on the development or distribution of video games on Xbox.

Therefore, franchises like Dark Souls, Dragon Ball, or Tekken will continue to arrive on Xbox as usual, at least for now. The most likely outcome is that we will see a greater boost to these universes in the realm of anime and derivative products, with Sony as the preferred partner.