Kadokawa to Hire New Staff to Adapt Anime and Manga into Games

• Kadokawa is hiring experienced candidates to adapt their anime, manga, and light novels into games.
• Sony’s investment supports Kadokawa’s goal to increase IP production by FY27.
• The company aims to follow a growing industry trend of integrated IP management.

Kadokawa Corp., the major Japanese publisher, is seeking experienced game production employees to oversee video game adaptations of its anime, manga, and light novel titles. 

Kadokawa's game division has posted openings for game producers, assistant producers, and marketing leads. These employment opportunities are designed to develop leadership and execution skills for games based on Kadokawa's existing and future media assets, which spans across various platforms like mobile, PC, and console.

Kadokawa has also developed a game project based on The Rising of the Shield Hero anime. Both The Rising of the Shield Hero: Relive The Animation (PC - Steam) and the mobile-based RPG Shield Hero: RISE, have been developed by the company. According to industry reports, Kadokawa announced plans for a new Shield Hero game for PC and mobile in 2025, describing it as a major release aimed at global markets.

Kadokawa’s New Recruitment Pushed by Sony?

Furthermore, earlier this year, Sony purchased 10% of Kadokawa's shares in order to increase its annual goal for original IP production to 9,000 titles per year, up from 7,000. Kadokawa's president, Takeshi Natsuno, told The Nikkei that the company intends to produce their IPs in a manner that is 1.5 times higher than their output in FY23. They want to achieve this target by FY27, which makes it plausible to think that Kadokawa’s latest hiring coincides with it.

The company has significant subsidiaries, including Elden Ring maker FromSoftware, Spike Chunsoft (Danganronpa), Acquire (Tenchu, Way of the Samurai), and Gotcha Gotcha Games (RPG Maker series). This portfolio expands Kadokawa's interactive entertainment reach as well as highlights the standard that is needed to drive their future game projects.

With traditional publishing increasingly blending with interactive media, Kadokawa, with Sony's backing, is following a major market movement. This movement will gradually lead the company towards a vertically integrated patent management, with its final goal of transforming its popular IPs into lucrative global gaming experiences.