Kadokawa reported a 51.3% decrease in operating profits compared with the prior fiscal year. The company attributed the decline to excessive reliance on existing winning patterns and a bias toward isekai works. Kadokawa said its focus on producing many isekai titles increased the number of works lacking originality or quality. It also said this approach failed to generate any hit titles. The situation is framed as a parallel to the gaming industry’s retreat from live-service strategies. Multiple major companies have reduced or canceled live-service efforts, suggesting the model is no longer delivering expected returns.
"Kadokawa just released its March 2026 fiscal earnings report, and the Japanese publisher believes that the blame for its 51.3-percent decrease in operating profits, when compared against its March 2025 fiscal earnings report, lies in its "excessive reliance on existing winning patterns" and its "bias" towards "Isekai-type works.""
"According to Kadokawa, its obsession with pumping out titles such as A Harem in a Fantasy World Labyrinth and The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World "also led to an increase in titles lacking originality or quality, and ultimately failed to result in the creation of any hit titles.""
"2026 feels like the year that every video game publisher finally caught on to the fact that going all-in on live-service games makes absolutely no sense when every other publisher is also trying to go all-in on live-service games. Turns out that the anime and manga side of the coin has an analogous example, because the publishing conglomerate Kadokawa has just announced a 51.3-percent decrease in operating profits...and the shareholders think its obsession with isekais is to blame."
Read at Kotaku
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]