FromSoftware is certainly a hot topic at the moment ever since they released their critically acclaimed game, Elden Ring. It is now under the rumor that it will be acquired by Sony itself. But how likely is it? We go over the finer points.

FromSoftware Rumored to be Acquired by PlayStation According to Game Consultant

We are again hearing from the rumor mill about studio acquisitions. In this year alone Microsoft was confirmed to purchase Activision Blizzard in a 68.7 billion dollar deal. Sony also acquired Bungie, developers of Destiny 2 for 3.6 billion dollars.

Among the recent rumours of late were whispers last week saying that Kojima Productions would be merging with PlayStation Studios. This caught traction because Kojima initially Tweeted out an updated PlayStation banner image that contained Sam Porter Bridges’/Norman Reedus’ face from Death Stranding amongst other Sony exclusive heroes and heroines.

Kojima has since debunked the rumor, confirming that Kojima Productions will in fact remain to be an independent studio. This has led to sparking another rumour about the acquisition of another Japanese studio, FromSoftware.

FromSoftware to Be Merged with Sony

A certain Dr. Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based gaming consultant has made the claim that the Elden Ring developer is currently rumored to be “an M&A candidate for Sony”. M&A pertains to the corporate finance term “merger and acquisition”. He announced the rumor in a multi-part Twitter thread.

Toto does not explicitly state any other facts so this is definitely just a rumor, for now. However, considering Toto’s background as Toto is the CEO of Kantan Games, an independent gaming consultancy in Japan, his word could be quite credible. He and his company makes analyses of the Japanese gaming market, especially developers based in Japan.

Back in January of this year, an interview between GamesIndustry.biz and Sony Interactive Entertainment’s CEO Jim Ryan confirmed that sony is not done with studio acquisitions. “I’ve been on record talking about increasing the size of the PlayStation community and expanding beyond our historic console heartland” Ryan states.

“We should absolutely expect more… We are by no means done. With PlayStation, we have a long way to go,” he says as the interview closes out.

The History of FromSoftware

In his Tweet thread, the Japanese analyst then goes on to discuss FromSoftware’s varied and unique history. Their first ever video game came in the form of King’s Field in 1994. FromSoftware had a steady slew of games being released, including some cult classics like the Armored Core mecha fighting series of games. In 2007, the company transcosmos joined them in a project that was later on called Co-Core, which was a virtual community much like the Metaverse that Facebook is currently promoting.

This Co-Core project was ultimately a failure, and FromSoftware went on to do other things. One of the biggest ones was Demon’s Souls in 2009. They were later on fully acquired by transcocmos in 2010 but were not the primary focus of the parent company. Eventually, media conglomerate Kadokawa acquired over 80% of FromSoft’s shares from transcosmos, essentially taking them over.

FromSoftware was purchased for about $22.5 million, adjusted for inflation.

Kadokawa the Giant

However, selling off FromSoftware is very unlikely considering how large the media giant Kadokawa is and its reach in terms of media. The company has its reach in a large number of industries, primarily in Japan. They have footprints in publishing, films, books, media, copyright, and of course, video games.

It would be odd for them to sell off their prime gaming development company, especially considering how successful Elden Ring was. The title sold over 12 million units in its first few weeks and it just works. It also surprisingly had almost a million concurrent players on Steam alone.

One could argue though that as of February 2021, Kadokawa also announced a Capital Alliance with both Sony and CyberAgent, a Japanese digital marketing company. This alliance is directly in an effort for Kadokawa to effectively make use of its existing IPs, especially in the game development and animation areas. Only time will tell.

The Unannounced Soulslike Game

As a last bit in the rumor mill, there also seems to be an unannounced Soulslike game floating in the wild. Shuhei Yoshida, ex Sony Interactive Entertainment president, and current indie game aficionado declared on Twitter the last 5 games he’s played.

Horizon Forbidden West, Genshin Impact, and Sifu are all good, and already pretty well known. An unreleased puzzle action could be anything, and not something to take note of (just yet). One stands out in the crowd though, the “Unreleased Soulslike”. He later also confirmed that this title is not Elden Ring. So what could it be?

Since Yoshida has a long-running with Sony and PlayStation, this could mean he has direct insider info on things that FromSoftware is working on. Everyone’s curiosity is flamed even further as Hernan Hulst, current head of PlayStation Studios, joins in and says Yoshida’s quite the tease. If someone would know what’s up, it would be these two prominent figures.

Speculation Station

Are they referring to something like Bloodborne 2? Demon’s Souls 2? Or perhaps something totally different and set in an entirely new universe? Maybe Bandai Namco finally secured Brandon Sanderson’s cooperation to work on a collaboration? Again, only time will tell.

Until we have further news of a new souls title you can headover to our Elden Ring content, be sure to visit our Elden Ring Wiki, which features multiple builds, bosses, walkthroughs, and more!

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For more news, check out The Iron Oath is an Upcoming Turn-Based Tactical RPG, Enters Early Access on April 19 and Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak Gets Two Character Reveals.