Sony is reportedly in talks to purchase FromSoftware’s parent company in a deal that could close within the coming weeks. Execs at Sony know how to make a move when it comes to acquiring studios that have successfully developed and published titles for its consoles. Over time it has grown quite the roster of developers from which to publish titles in-house. Studios such as Insomniac (Spider-Man), Guerrilla (Horizon), and Naughty Dog (Last of Us, Uncharted), Santa Monica Studio (God of War), Sucker Punch (Ghost of Tsushima), are just some of the many on hand who’ve joined the console manufacturer, so the possibility of Elden Ring developer FromSoftware becoming the next to join the fold seems very plausible. To date, Elden Ring has sold over 25 million copies.
Per Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida (via Reuters):
- “Loveable characters and intellectual property (IP) can live for 30, 50 or 100 years,” Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said last year.
- “That’s something we want to make investment in for sustainable growth,” he said.
According to Reuter’s sources, Sony is reportedly in talks to buy Kadokawa who happens to own FromSoftware. Sony, which currently has a market value said to be upwards of $114 billion, already has a 2% stake in the company formed in 1945 which publishes games, anime, and more. Kadokawa’s shares rose by 23% yesterday, it priorly had a market value of $2.7 billion just the day before. However, Kadokawa has had a bit of a rough patch recently. Two years ago its chairman, the son of its founder, resigned following an indictment regarding bribery charges relating to the Tokyo Olympics. This past year the company also experienced a cyberattack in which a data leak occurred. Sony has declined to comment on the potential deal while Kadokawa has said that it cannot comment.