Major Japanese company merger may unite creators of Dark Souls, Danganronpa

The Japan Times reports that Japanese publisher Kadokawa Corp. intends to merge with its capital ally Dwango Co., the company best known for running the popular Japanese video platform NicoNico. “We aim to establish the world’s leading platform for content, which would serve as a new business model in the Internet age,” Kadokawa advisor Tatsuo Sato reportedly said during a news conference held in Tokyo yesterday to announce the merger. Kadokawa is a large Japanese media company primarily known for being a premier publisher of books, magazines and films, though it has also published games like Killer Is Dead and developed games like Demon Gaze under the aegis of its Kadokawa Games subsidiary. Last month, Kadokawa announced its intention to acquire Dark Souls developer From Software, a deal which will be finalized later this month. Dwango Co. is a Japanese media and telecommunications company that's best known for operating the popular NicoNico video platform via its Niwango subsidiary. NicoNico works a bit like YouTube with expanded features, and serves as a popular platform for distributing both user-submitted videos and official footage of games, anime and more. Dwango also owns Spike Chunsoft, the Japanese game developer and publisher responsible for creating games like Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and localizing games like Metro: Last Light for the Japanese market. Given that both companies are very large, there's no clear indication yet of what this merger might mean for the assorted game publishing and development departments they own and operate. The two Japanese powerhouses plan to delist themselves from the Tokyo Stock Exchange in September and formally relaunch as a single combined company, Kadokawa Dwango Corp., on October 1st.