Sony and Tencent will purchase 30% of FromSoftware

FromSoftware will sell 30% of its shares to Sony and Tencent, according to a report by VGC.

According to a notice by Kadokawa Corporation, who owns the developer behind some of the most popular and prestigious Japanese video games, the shares will be split between Sixjoy Hong Kong (a Tencent subsidiary) and Sony Interactive Entertainment. Sixjoy will purchase 16.25%, while Sony will own 14.09%. Kadokawa will maintain a hold over the other 69.66%. 

Kadokawa explains in the notice that they hope the upcoming ‘third-party allotment’ of shares to Sixjoy and Sony will allow the studio extra funding, which it may use to help itself publish its own games outside of Japan. It is unlikely at this time that Sony becoming a minority shareholder in FromSoftware will affect what platforms the company releases its games on going forward, as the studio continues to develop titles for multiple platforms.

“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,” said Kadokawa Corp.

FromSoftware has in the past needed the help of larger publishers like Activision, Sony and Bandai Namco in the past to publish popular titles like Elden Ring, Demon’s Souls and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice internationally, despite regularly publishing their own releases in Japan.