Sony is rumoured to be snapping up FromSoftware's parent company in the industry's ongoing mission to be consolidated to hell and back

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC screenshot
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Sony could soon be acquiring FromSoftware's parent company, according to a report by Reuters.

Kadokawa Corporation is home to some pretty major developers, including Danganronpa's Spike Chunsoft and Octopath Traveler's Acquire, and has almost a 70% stake in too-many-bangers-to-list studio FromSoftware. It's not just games, either, as the media conglomerate also owns Niconico, which is essentially Japan's alternative to YouTube.

Sony actually already has a very small stake in Kadokawa—2% to be exact—along with shares in FromSoftware which the publisher secured in a deal back in 2022. Now, according to a source for Reuters, Sony is looking to take home the whole pie. It's allegedly in talks with Kadokawa right now, and a deal could be signed off within weeks if discussions are all fine and dandy.

It doesn't mean much at all right now, but I do wonder what impact it'll have if it goes through. For one thing, FromSoftware has a pretty tight working relationship with Bandai Namco, which has published a fairly big chunk of FromSoft’s library and has IP rights to those games. Kadokawa also heads up a sizable amount of anime and manga distribution, which isn't gaming-related but might still be of interest to Sony: it bought out Funimation in 2017 before acquiring Crunchyroll in 2021, merging the two services together a year later. It wouldn't surprise me if there was at least some interest in that on Sony's part.


I'm not exactly one for the alarming increase in industry consolidation—Microsoft's acquisition carnage has raised multiple eyebrows, and Embracer proved to be ruthless in scooping up multiple companies, only to dump many of them when it landed itself in financial hot water. If the deal does go through, FromSoftware will likely come out of it unscathed, but I wonder what will become of the numerous other operations under Kadokawa's belt.

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Mollie Taylor
Features Producer

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.  

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