Sony and Bandai Namco Sign Strategic Partnership - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 24 July 2025 / 4,671 Views
Sony Group Corporation and Bandai Namco Holdings have announced the signing of a strategic business alliance agreement with the goal to strengthen engagement among anime and manga fans.
Sony will acquire 16 million Bandai Namco shares for 68 billion yen ($464 million USD) and become a shareholder of approximately 2.5 percent of the total issued shares of Bandai Namco.
Sony and Bandai Namco had collaborated on multiple projects over the years. This includes games, anime and music.
“The Bandai Namco Group promotes an '[intellectual property] axis strategy' that aims to maximize [intellectual property] value by leveraging the appeal and worldview of [intellectual property], providing the optimal products and services at the optimal timing in the optimal regions," said Bandai Namco Holdings Executive Vice President Nobuhiko Momoi.
"We are filled with excitement about the potential to create new entertainment by combining Sony Group's strengths and technological capabilities across various entertainment fields with Bandai Namco's [intellectual property] axis strategy. Through this collaboration, we aim to connect with [intellectual property] fans worldwide, cocreate the future together, and realize our Purpose, 'Fun for All into the Future,' and Mid- to Long-term Vision, 'Connect with Fans.'"
Sony Group Corporation Chief Strategy Officer Toshimoto Mitomo added, "Through this partnership, we aim to co-create an array of content and experiences that exceed expectations and deliver Kando (emotion) to even more fans, alongside Bandai Namco Group, with its outstanding capacity for multidirectional expansion of diverse [intellectual property] and deep connections with fans at real touchpoints, both domestically and internationally. By combining the strengths of both companies in the field of entertainment and unlocking the potential of compelling [intellectual property], we will further accelerate our efforts to maximize [intellectual property] value and realize Sony's long-term vision, 'Creative Entertainment Vision.'"
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
More Articles
For other media like anime/manga or other things, for games, for Sony niche IPs, sure.
Whatever it amounts to in the end besides the business wording.
Not a fan of Sony's anime expanding approach, still won't with this or any others they make deals with.
Whatever works for their audio, their TV, their music, TV/movie side and other departments I guess. Or tie ins with other things.
2.5% is not that much, but that $0.46B is, wonder why invest this much there, that's 2 high profiles AAA games.
It's anime. Sony wants to own the anime industry.
Nintendo owns a 1.6% share of Bandai Namco, but that's mostly to support game development. Bandai Namco develops a lot of games for Nintendo.
Hope this doesn't lead to would-be multiplats going exclusive, otherwise I'm okay with this
2.5 percent is not enough for games In think. Although I do think this deal could ensure Bandai and Sony working more closely together on Anime and Bandai opting for Crunchyroll. For games I don't see anything happening.
That's what I thought but I was unsure since the wording didn't outright exclude games
Nintendo also own like 1.5%.
Sony already has a monopoly on anime lol
Was a smart move, Crunchyroll is quite profitable
