Kadokawa Corporation has announced the issuing of new shares of FromSoftware to Tencent and Sony Interactive Entertainment via third-party allotment. The former is acquiring 16.25 percent of the Elden Ring developer’s shares through its subsidiary Sixjoy Hong Kong. Sony will own 14.09 percent of the shares.
This follows rumors of the developer being a merger and acquisition candidate for the PS5 manufacturer. Sony formed a capital alliance with Kadokawa last year, granting it 1.93 percent ownership of the company.
As to the current deal, Kadokawa remains the largest shareholder with 69.66 percent of shares. In its notice for the same, the parent company said that FromSoftware will “aim to proactively invest in the development of more powerful game IP for itself to strengthen FromSoftware’s development capabilities and will seek to establish a framework that allows the expansion of the scope of its own publishing in the significantly growing global market.”
This seems to indicate that the studio will go into publishing at some point, which is interesting considering its reliance on Bandai Namco Entertainment over the years (and Activision for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice).
It also noted, “For an increase of the number of users in the global market for game IP that FromSoftware creates and develops, FromSoftware decided to conduct the Third-Party Allotment to Sixjoy within the Tencent Group, which has strength in its capabilities to develop and deploy mobile games and other network technologies in the global market including China, and SIE within the Sony Group, which has strength in its capabilities to deploy IP in games, videos and various other media in the global market, concurrently and separately.”
While this doesn’t confirm that the studio is working on mobile projects, it speaks to its desire to release games in China. What it could develop in collaboration with Sony Interactive Entertainment remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.
