Sony becomes biggest shareholder of FromSoftware owner in massive deal

Sony has become the biggest shareholder of FromSoftware owner Kadokawa, forming a “strategic capital and business alliance”.

News of Sony’s interest in buying, or increasing its shares in Kadokawa has been common knowledge for a while. It was also revealed that Kadokawa and the staff at FromSoftware were excited by the idea of a merger.

While Sony already owned shares in the company, they’ve now become the largest shareholder, effectively making them the majority owner and forever changing the company’s landscape. However, it’s important to point out that Sony doesn’t own Kadokawa outright.

Though, the news is a game-changer for lots of reasons. Not only does it give Sony access to Kadokawa’s vast catalog of anime assets, it also gives Sony a lot more control over the games FromSoftware will produce – which is great news for Bloodborne and Demon’s Souls fans.

Both Sony and Kadokawa have already confirmed they’ll adapt some of their IPs into live-action film and TV shows.

Sony merges with Kadokawa

Speaking about the merger, Kadokawa CEO Takeshi Natsuno said, “We are very pleased to conclude this capital and business alliance agreement with Sony. This alliance is expected to not only further strengthen our IP creation capabilities, but also increase our IP media mix options with Sony’s support for global expansion, allowing us to deliver our IP to more users around the world.”

“We are confident that this will greatly contribute to maximising the value of our IP and increasing our corporate value in the mid-to long-term. We intend to do our utmost to ensure that our collaborative efforts with Sony produce great results in the global market.”

Sony president, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki said, “Through this capital and business alliance, we will become the largest shareholder of Kadokawa, which consistently creates a wide variety of IP, including publications and books, such as light novels and comics, as well as games and anime.”

“By combining Kadokawa’s extensive IP and IP creation ecosystem with the strengths of Sony, which has promoted the global expansion of a wide range of entertainment, including anime and games, we plan to work closely together to realize Kadokawa’s ‘Global Media Mix’ strategy, aimed at maximizing the value of its IP, and Sony’s long-term vision, ‘Creative Entertainment Vision’.”

While FromSoftware and their Souls game assets are likely only a small part of Sony’s interest in Kadokawa, the possibility of a Demon’s Souls sequel or more Bloodborne games just increased exponentially. This is because Sony could now direct FromSoftware to work on these two IPs over any other project.

FromSoftware is currently still working with Bandai Namco on Elden Ring Nightreign which sees a crossover between Dark Souls and Elden Ring. So it’ll be interesting to see if FromSoftware’s relationship with Bandai Namco continues after this game is released.