Elden Ring and Dark Souls could be owned by Sony soon

(Credit: FromSoftware)

• 👀 Sony could be adding Elden Ring and the Dark Souls series to its portfolio

• 💰 The company is reportedly in talks to buy FromSoftware’s parent company

• 📈 Kadokawa owns a 70% stake in FromSoftware

• 📺 Kadokawa also deals with anime, manga and TV in Japan

Sony is reportedly in talks to buy Kadokawa, the parent-company of developer FromSoftware, which created immensely popular Elden Ring and Dark Souls series.

Reuters reports that Sony is interesting in adding Kadokawa to its entertainment portfolio, as the company also deals with anime, manga, TV, and film – an area where Sony has already invested heavily.

Kadokawa owns other developers aside FromSoftware, too, including Spike Chunsoft, which makes the Danganronpa series, Octopath Traveler developer Acquire, and Gotcha Gotcha Games.

Talks between the two Japanese companies are ongoing, but if successful, a deal could be signed in the coming weeks. Kadokawa’s market value was around $2.7 billion prior to Reuters report, and Sony already owns a 2% stake in the company and a 14% stake in FromSoftware. Both Sony and Kadokawa declined to comment on the report.

Sony will hope that if it does acquire Kadokawa, it will prove more fruitful than some of its more recent purchases. After the failure of Concord, it shutdown developer Firewalk, which it only acquired in 2023. Bungie has struggled since being purchased by Sony, too, cutting hundreds of jobs as it struggles to keep Destiny 2 relevant.

Xbox fans will be hoping that if Sony does buy Kadokawa and subsequently FromSoftware, it won’t make Dark Souls or future Elden Ring games exclusively. The studio’s games currently release on all platforms, give or take, and are incredibly popular.

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Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.