Sony Acquires A Bigger Stake In Elden Ring Developer From Software

Sony's and Tencent's latest acquisition is a bigger slice of From Software, the studio behind hit games such as Dark Souls and Elden Ring. The two companies will collectively own 30% of the developer, while its parent company Kadokawa Corporation will still remain the majority shareholder.

Sony will increase its stake in From Software to 14.09% and Tencent will own 16.25% of the studio through its subsidiary Sixjoy, with Kadokawa owning the remaining 69.66% shares. As Kadokawa explained in an official notice, From Software will now have extra funding from the sale of these shares which in turn will help it to publish its games globally.

Interestingly, Kadokawa's notice also mentions the studio investing in the "development of more powerful game IP" and Tencent's involvement is being seen as an opportunity for From Software to strengthen "its capabilities to develop and deploy mobile games" around the world. Sony already has big plans to expand the PlayStation brand to mobile devices by 2025 and it acquired Savage Game Studios, a mobile studio based in Finland and Germany, this week.

Back in June, From Software announced that it had begun hiring for "multiple" new games, and company president Hidetaka Miyazaki also mentioned in an interview that an unannounced project--possibly Armored Core--is in the final stages of development.

From Software has had one of its best years yet, as Elden Ring became a blockbuster hit for the studio when it was released in February. Sales of the game have reached 16.6 million units sold as of June and the game's headstart has analysts predicting that it will outsell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 this year.