Sony and Tencent take minority stake in Elden Ring maker FromSoftware

Sony and Tencent have acquired a minority stake in FromSoftware. That is what parent company Kadokawa Corporation announced on Tuesday. The two companies jointly own 30 percent of the studio behind Elden Ring and Dark Souls.

FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa Corporation confirms that the new shares are being issued to Sony Interactive Entertainment and Sixjoy Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Tencent. According to documents, Sony will own 14.09 percent of FromSoftware. Sixjoy buys 16.25 percent of the shares of the studio. The remaining 69.66 percent remains in the hands of Kadokawa. With the investments, FromSoftware will receive a capital injection of EUR 272.75 million. The amount will be paid between 7 and 12 September.

That money should help the company to release its own games in more countries, writes Kadokawa Corporation. Currently, the company already does this in Japan, but in other countries FromSoftware relies on other companies. For example, Elden Ring and the Dark Souls trilogy were published by Bandai Namco, while Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was published by Activision. The company also wants to invest in ‘developing new intellectual properties’.

“Through the execution of the fundraising, FromSoftware will strive to proactively invest in the development of more powerful game IPs to strengthen FromSoftware’s development capabilities,” the document reads. “[FromSoftware] will strive to establish a framework that will enable the expansion of its own publishing activities in the significantly growing global market.”

Kadokawa Corporation also highlights that Tencent and its subsidiaries are ‘strong’ in developing mobile games and ‘other network technologies’. The company also indicates that it wants to strengthen its long-term relationship with Sony. The three companies involved do not share any specific plans about possible collaborations.