I was idly flipping through the Corporate Guide the other day and ran across something which caused me to blink.

Weapons World somehow became a subsidary of AA Monobe International.

Last I checked, WW was THE flagship consumer retailer for Ares Arms, with a good location in every Ares-owned mall.

So... Crash 2.0? Or author hiccup?

I can't see Ares letting that one go peacefully.

Peacefully, no. But possibly traded for a few rich weapons contracts, a munitions factory in an undisclosed location, two container ships, and a Company Man to be named at a later time?

Seattle Sourcebook (pages 46 and 56), set in 2049, originally introduced Weapons World as a chain of 33 stores owned by local businessman (and gunrunner) Diderson Kyogi. Aztechnology and Weapons World cut a deal to retail Aztechnology guns and flak vests.

Corporate Shadowfiles (pages 23) in 2054 said Weapons World, Inc. was a subsidiary of Monobe International.

Corporate Download (page 32) in 2061 was the first to list Weapons World as a subsidiary of Ares Macrotechnology. So, Weapons World was a late addition to Ares holdings on the small firearm market it already ruled.

I think the author who wrote on Monobe International in Corporate Guide checked old books for references to Monobe, but did not crosscheck to see if any of Monobe holdings had showed up elsewhere since.
How Ares acquired Weapons World from Monobe was easily explained by Blood in the Boardroom (between 2054 and 2059 "then-President Show Kubota was more interested in lining his personal bank accounts than chalenging the Bigh Eight"). So far, there have been no official retcon on how Monobe got Weapons World back. Though it may seem silly, it's quite common IRL for corporations to buys back subsidiaries they sold just a few years ago. On the other hand, SR usually handwaves the fact that it's impossible to buy a subsidiary without the agreement (or at least gross mismanagement) from the parent company.

Another option is that Ares owns Monobe through some back channels and the only place it shows up even remotely is at Weapon's World.

So who owns Monobe? Ares perhaps?

Nice summary, Nath.

Maybe Weapons World is the 6th World's corporate business' version of Hong Kong?

Although most people pay little attention to Monobe, an Ares ownership ought to be a plot of epic proportion and consequences.

Monobe is not just some random AA corporation. It is the fourth largest Japan corporation, right behind MCT, Renraku and Shiawase. They're big enough to push for AAA status since 2054, and did so repeatedly since 2059(Wuxing entering the Court and Yamatetsu/Evo leaving Japan prompted the other Japanese megacorps to support the election of a new Japanese AAA to restore their voting block on the Court). So Monobe alone would be nearly or fully on-par with small AAA like Horizon and Wuxing.

Good grab Nath, the thing about AA's is they are too big to be gobbled up by AAA. My suggestion would be that Ares handles the franchises in North America or maybe just the UCAS and CAS. People see that sign, something like "An Ares corp" on the Nroth American letter head and think it is all owned by Ares world wide and that led to the "mistake" Nath found saying it was owned by Ares.

Also possible that Ares bought it up when Monobe was selling things for extra funding (With 33 stores, it'd probably expanded to 50-ish, so, big to you or moe, chump change to the Megas) or just flat-out offered a good level of cash to someone who sold out. Heck, there could even have been a Shadowrun involved (Look at this great deal you're getting... you sign these papers, you get all this cash, and Bruno, here, doesn't have to beat you to death with his rifle butt! Everybody wins.)

The takeback was likely similar... Ares has needed cash several times in the past decade, what with the Catco buyout/raiding, catching up with wireless tech, dealing with the bugs and quietly working WITH the bugs, and so on. Or, once again, a Shadowrun pops up. (Well, it seems that, somehow, they got footage of you and that fifteen year old Ork. If you want that buried, you need to cut a deal.)

By and large, if something doesn't make a lot of sense, you can chalk it up to a Shadowrun.

That's why I said such a plot involving Ares secretly owning Monobe would have to be epic in proportion. And it wouldn't actually help explaining how and why Weapons World changed hands.

On the other hand, Ares already gobbled large parts of AAA megacorporation Cross Applied Technologies (how large exactly depends on the author and the sourcebook you're reading), and Aztechnology acquisition of AA megacorporation Esprit Industries was a non-event as far as the existing sourcebooks are concerned.

Considering Seattle Sourcebook is set in 2049, Corporate Shadowfiles in 2054, Corporate Download in 2061, and Corporate Guide in 2072 (you can also add Shadows of Asia in 2063, which does not mention Weapons World as a subsdiary of Monobe), there's more than time for Weapons World to be sold and bought several times.


Seattle businessman Diderson Kyogi founded Weapons World in the late 2030ies or 2040ies. By 2049, he had 33 stores in Seattle sprawl, and a well-established procurement network with deals with Aztechnology, but also other major players FN Herstal (a Monobe subsidiary) and Ares Small Arms (an Ares Macrotechnology subsidiary).

Kyogi wanted to open franchises outside of Seattle. At the same time, his gunrunning operation was under fire from government agencies. Clearly, if you want to go big in the weapons business, you need extraterritoriality. Kyogi choosed the smaller fish, where he was most likely to retain some control, and so Weapons World, Inc. became a Monobe subsidiary by 2054, with Kyogi probably keeping some shares, getting some shares in Monobe International as well, and a position.

With extraterritoriality and megacorporate funding, Weapons World grew. The Seattle business spreads to most North American sprawls (since a Weapons World opened everytime a Shadowrun Gamemaster decided there should be one in the sprawl he's playing in). When Weapons World was the largest armorer in Seattle, they were just a line lost somewhere in Ares Small Arms market surveys. As they became the largest armorer in Seattle, and California, and Texas, and Florida, more and more people in Ares Arms and Ares Macrotechnology offices get to know their name.
And so at some point, Ares wanted to buy Weapons World to consolidate its hold on the firearm industry (and possibly keeps Cross' subisidary Fleche Armaments out of the market). Ares is a AAA megacorporation, with considerable clout in North America. A retailer like Weapons World must have Ares collection on its shelve (moreover, Corporate Download describe how Are flooded the market in the late 2050 and early 2060, driving everybody profits down). Before 2059, Monobe CEO was corruptible. After 2059, the new one aims to make Monobe a AAA: the Japanese voting block is not enough, and securing Ares vote would have helped. For all those reasons, Monobe sells Weapons World to Ares Macrotechnology. By 2061, Weapons World is the flagship for Ares Small Arms (if you want to, since I don't think this was ever specified anywhere).
Here comes the 2064 Crash. Ares acquires a part of Cross Applied Technologies assets. Those includes contracts with creative studios that used to work with Ares Global Entertainment in the past and jumped ship along with Leonard Aurelius and Ares Global Entertainement Executive Vice-President Raymond Briggs (that topic is briefly touched upon in Blood in the Boardroom and Shadows of Europe). Those teams have Ares marketing completely overhauled, along with a new corporate identity campaign to make former Ares and Cross employees work together, and Ares new organization unveiled in Corporate Guide. The management wants Ares brand to be everywhere. For the marketing people, "Weapons World" is not "Ares" ("John, I see eight letters that shouldn't be on your visual, and the four others are not in the right order"). Worst, Weapons World actually sells other brands, like FN Herstal and H&K. While Ares has a new, better concept: the Ares Store. You buy your gun, your car and your comlink in the same place (ever noticed Apple Computer Products was a subsidiary of Ares ?).
Weapons World should be shut down, or sold, if that can make some money: they need some cash after the Cross buyout. Whoever remained of the Kyogi era in Weapons World management need to find a solution if they want to keep their job (and keep on benefiting from corporate citizenship to evade DoJ now twenty-years old investigations). They're still in touch with people at Monobe, especially since they're Monobe subsidiary FN Herstal first retailer in North America. And so does Monobe accept to buy Weapons World back from Ares.

That's far too reasonable, Nath.

On a second thought, the story could be further integrated into existing plots by having Weapons World a major source of illegal weapons supplies for some New Revolution cells in 2064, and the fact getting public, giving Ares even more reasons to sell the company.

Also been playing the Genesis game a bit, and it lists Weapon's World as a Ares subsidiary. Another place where confusion might reign.