Sony in talks to acquire Elden Ring maker parent company

Update: 20/11/2024 at 12:46pm ET — Kadokawa has acknowledged that it has received a letter of intent from Sony proposing the acquisition, but “no decision has been made at this time.” It adds that if there are any facts that should be announced in the future, we will make an announcement in a timely and appropriate manner.”

Original story follows:

Sony is in talks to acquire Kadokawa, the Japanese media company that owns Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, according to Reuters.

Specific financial terms weren’t disclosed, but Reuters notes that Kodokawa’s market cap prior to its report was $2.7 billion USD (about $3.7 billion CAD). Kadokawa owns a controlling 69.66 percent stake in FromSoftware, while Sony itself holds a 14.09 percent stake in the game developer and a two percent one in Kadokawa itself.

It’s easy to see why Sony would be interested in having full ownership of FromSoftware. The prolific developer is behind some of the most acclaimed games of all time, including Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and the aforementioned Elden Ring. The studio’s latest release, this year’s Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, has sold over five million copies and was just nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards. (Disclaimer: MobileSyrup is part of the voting jury for The Game Awards.)

However, FromSoftware is far from Kadokawa’s only subsidiary. The Japanese media giant also owns such game developers as Spike Chunsoft (Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero) and Acquire (Octopath Traveler), as well as numerous anime and manga publishing companies. That latter point is particularly noteworthy since Sony has become an increasingly dominant player in the anime space through Aniplex, which it founded, and its acquisition of Crunchyroll.

It remains to be seen whether Sony’s acquisition of Kadokawa will close, but Reuters said an announcement, should a deal be reached, may arrive in “the coming weeks.”

Image credit: Bandai Namco

Source: Reuters