Sony and Tencent have both increased their stakes in Elden Ring development studio FromSoftware, owning more than 30% of the studio between them.
Sony's ownership totals 14.09%, and Tencent's — owned via its subsidiary Sixjoy — totals 16.25%. Kadokawa remains FromSoftware's majority stakeholder with 69.66% of the company, but the new investment should empower FromSoftware to push its games even further.
"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," Kadokawa said in a statement on the sale of the shares.
"FromSoftware will aim to proactively invest in the 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."
FromSoftware's profile grew significantly with the release of Elden Ring in February. The game was publisher Bandai Namco's fastest release in history, and as of June had sold 16.6 million copies. FromSoftware plans to expand the franchise, though the exact shape of that expansion (DLC? sequels?) has yet to be detailed. Leaks from July indicated the game would receive DLC in Q3 2023.
This article was originally published on dbltap as Sony, Tencent Increase Holdings in Elden Ring Maker to Over 30%.
