Officially confirmed: Sony wants to buy the company behind "Elden Ring"

According to insider information available to the news agency "Reuters", Sony is in talks to acquire the Japanese media group Kadokawa. If an agreement is reached, a contract could be signed in the coming weeks.

Update from 21 November

In the meantime, Kadokawa has confirmed in a press release that Sony is interested in a purchase. It states that the company has received an official letter of intent to acquire shares from Sony. However, a final decision on the part of Kadokawa is still pending.

The Kadokawa Group includes the Japanese developer studio Fromsoftware, which is known for blockbuster games such as "Elden Ring", "Dark Souls" and "Bloodborne". Sony already owns a 14 per cent stake in Fromsoftware prior to the acquisition of Kadokawa. Aquire ("Octopath Taveler"), Gotcha Gotcha Games ("RPG Maker") and Spike Chunsoft ("Danganronpa") are also subsidiaries of Kadokawa. In addition to the gaming business, the Japanese group also owns numerous companies in the fields of manga, anime, TV production and film production.

Between mass redundancies and takeovers

In recent years, Sony has pursued an aggressive expansion policy in the gaming sector. Among others, the Playstation company has acquired Bungie ("Destiny"), Insomniac Games ("Spider-Man"), Bluepoint Games ("Demon's Souls Remake"), Firesprite ("Horizon: Call of the Mountain"), Nixxes Software (PC ports of Playstation games) and Housemarque ("Returnal").

Not all acquisitions were crowned with success. For example, Firewalk Studios, which was acquired in 2023, was closed in October after the gigantic flop of the multiplayer shooter "Concord". Bungie is also in financial difficulties and recently had to lay off 220 employees https://www.ign.com/articles/destiny-developer-bungie-cuts-220-staff-some-of-the-most-difficult-changes-weve-ever-had-to-make-as-a-studio. In February Playstation also announced that around 900 employees across the company would be made redundant - including at renowned studios such as Insomniac, Naughty Dog and Guerilla Games.

Will "Elden Ring" now be Playstation-exclusive?

The possible takeover of Kadokawa raises the question of how Sony will deal with the games of the acquired developer studios. Will "Elden Ring" and "Dark Souls" be available exclusively on the Playstation in future? In contrast to Microsoft, which is increasingly releasing its games on other platforms, Sony is focussing on exclusive titles in the console sector to make the PS5 more attractive as a platform.

In recent years, Sony's strict exclusivity policy has been relaxed somewhat with delayed PC ports of previously exclusive titles such as "The Last of Us", "Spider-Man" and "God of War". Live Service titles such as "Helldivers II" are even being released simultaneously on PC and Playstation. With smaller titles such as "Lego Horizons Adventures", Sony is even venturing onto the Nintendo Switch for the first time.

Fromsoftware fans can also draw hope from the Bungie acquisition - after the takeover, the multiplayer shooter "Destiny" remained on all possible platforms. The follow-up project "Marathon" is also not expected to be Playstation-exclusive.