Sony Music Entertainment (SME) revealed on August 28 that it has struck a capital and business partnership deal with game developer GungHo Online Entertainment. SME plans to purchase over 23% of GungHo shares for approximately 28.6 billion JPY ($179 million USD) by December 30, thereby becoming the company’s top shareholder. (source: Game Biz)
The shares SME intends to buy will come from SON Financial LLC, which has been GungHo’s largest shareholder up until now.
SME has a well-established presence in the gaming sector. It notably owns Aniplex, a Japanese entertainment firm recognized for publishing titles such as Witch on the Holy Night, Melty Blood: Type Lumina, and Fate/Grand Order. The company has also collaborated with GungHo previously, handling audio and video content rights for games and co-developing projects together.
This fresh agreement between the two firms aims to deepen their collaboration. Alongside joint development and operation of GungHo’s mobile, console, and PC games, they will push forward with cooperative ventures within GungHo Games. New game initiatives are also on the table, potentially leveraging SME Group’s intellectual properties. Although no projects have been unveiled yet, the details of the partnership will be hashed out and solidified later.
After SME acquires the shares, it will hold significant sway over GungHo. However, as outlined in their joint capital and business alliance agreement, both sides have affirmed that SME will honor GungHo’s operational autonomy as long as it remains a publicly traded company.
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