There could be an upcoming powerplay as Tencent has increased its shares in FromSoftware’s parent company Kadokawa. Tencent, who has an investment in Epic Games, increased its shareholdings in Kadokawa by 1.1% to 7.97% thus edging closer to the company’s largest shareholder, Sony, who owns 10% following its shareholding bulkup in December 2024. Tencent said, per Nikkei, that its reason for purchasing the additional shares was “part of a capital and business alliance between the submitter and the issuer.”
Both Tencent and Sony seem to be performing an interesting dance with their respective share purchasing strategies as both previously invested into Kadokawa back in 2021. Another similarity is that both are calling their investments a “business alliance”. Sony said of its latest share increases, “Through this capital and business alliance, we will become the largest shareholder of KADOKAWA, which consistently creates a wide variety of IP, including publications and books, such as light novels and comics, as well as games and anime.”
From business alliances to a potential buy-out
Sony is apparently interested in taking things a step further as it was reported to have given Kadokawa a buyout offer in November, which Kadokawa confirmed a day after the leak made news. It remains to be seen what will become of FromSoftware’s parent company, but its two largest investment partners seem to be proceeding with long-term plans for Kadokawa.
Meanwhile, the ELDEN RING developer recently opened pre-registrations for its multiplayer co-op version, ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN. More than likely, for now, both Sony and Tencent are simply bulking up their investments for expected profit revenue from the launch set to happen on May 30th. However, Sony is well-known for buying out studios it eyes as a profitable addition to its PlayStation Studios family to support its console sales and in-house game IP development. A buy-out of KadoKawa would also include much more with anime and other media IPs.