FromSoftware has two new shareholders – Tencent Holdings subsidiary Sixjoy Hong Kong and Sony Group subsidiary Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Through a third-party allotment, Sony Interactive Entertainment and FromSoftware will own 14.09 percent and 16.25 percent of the company respectively, while Kadokawa Corporation retains 69.66 percent.
Kadokawa in their press release explained that “Third-Party Allotment will contribute to the medium- to long-term improvement of the Group’s corporate value, while the impact of the Third-Party Allotment on the Company’s consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023 is expected, at the time of this report, to be minor.”
While this does not mean Sony will have the platform exclusives on everything FromSoftware going forward, it is a major step for Sony and Tencent in working closely with the developer, and hopefully leads to some new and exciting games we can all enjoy. This also will keep the Dark Souls developer from being purchased by Microsoft, who are expected to close their Activision Blizzard acquisition later this year.
Through the implementation of the fund procurement, FromSoftware will aim to proactively invest in 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. In addition to these purposes, 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.
FromSoftware Press Release
Sony has a long history with FromSoftware, with Bloodbourn and Demon’s Souls both originally by PlayStation. With the recent remaster of Demon’s Souls, one of the landmark titles for the launch of the PlayStation 5, and rumours constantly swirling that Bloodbourn may receive the same treatment, it will be interesting to see how the two companies work together on current and future IPs and what that could mean for fans of the Souls’ genre of games.
With the recent news of Elden Ring selling over 16-million copies, it is no wonder both Sony and Tencent want to play a part in the studios future development.
