Kadokawa experienced a significant cyber attack on June 8, which forced many of its services, including Niconico, offline.
The attack, which included ransomware, targeted Kadokawa’s central servers that host Niconico services. While there is no evidence yet of an information leak, the company is investigating.
To mitigate further damage, Kadokawa shut down the affected servers, impacting their entire data center. This disruption affected various services, including accounting, publishing, and several anime websites.
The company apologized to those impacted and assured partners that payments would be made, although there may be delays.
Kadokawa’s publishing business is experiencing setbacks, with ordering, digital manufacturing, and logistics systems halted.
Production has slowed due to suspended orders, leading to delays in printing and reprinting publications. Support for both ebook and physical book production is also currently down.
Kadokawa aims to stabilize its operations by the end of June, but rebuilding Niconico services will take longer. All official Niconico live broadcasts and channel live broadcasts are suspended until the end of July.
In the interim, users can access a simplified version of the website, called Niconico Video: Re, featuring selected popular content from 2007.
Although the Niconico manga service was not directly affected, it will operate with basic functions until it is fully restored by the month’s end.
Despite the cyber attack, planned broadcasts of Kadokawa-produced anime remain unaffected but are not available on Niconico.
The upcoming Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom movie has launched a new version of its official website and is set to premiere on June 27 in Japan.
