Both Sony and Tencent have increased their investments in Elden Ring developer FromSoftware with the two companies now owning what’s approximately a collective 30% of the studio. The continued investments into the renowned developer were announced on Wednesday with Sony now owning 14.09% of the company while Tencent (via its Sixjoy Hong Kong Limited subsidiary) owns 16.25%. FromSoftware’s parent company Kadokawa Corporation still owns the majority of the studio by retaining 69. 66% of the shares.
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The new stakes in FromSoftware were confirmed in a press release from Kadokawa detailing the increased investments and the new shareholding ratio. Both Sony and Tencent previously held much smaller stakes in FromSoftware prior to these new investments.
Through these new investments, Kadokawa said FromSoftware will look to “invest in development of more powerful game IP for itself” and will “seek to establish a framework that allows the expansion of the scope of its own publishing in the significantly growing global market.” Kadokawa’s announcement referenced the strengths of both Tencent and Sony while saying the former has strength in mobile games and “other network technologies” in China while Sony has strength in the deployment of IPs in games and other forms of media around the world.
While Elden Ring was not specifically mentioned in that excerpt from the press release talking about the strengths of the investing companies, it’s worth recalling that FromSoftware said not long ago it’d like to see Elden Ring grow beyond simply a game. A press release from the company shared months ago which touted the success of the game said people can look forward to more of Elden Ring “in hopes of expanding beyond the realm of games.” Yasuo Miyakawa, the president and CEO of Bandai Namco Entertainment, the publisher of Elden Ring, echoed those sentiments at the time while saying the groups will “continue our efforts in expanding the brand beyond the game itself, and into everyone’s daily life.”
While many are still hoping for Elden Ring DLC given that FromSoftware’s Dark Souls games got expansions of their own, the developer recently confirmed that it’s already in the “final stages” of development in regards to its next title.
