Reuters: Sony in talks to buy media powerhouse behind 'Elden Ring', sources say

mibu no ookami

Veteran
21 Feb 2024
2,231
2,026
I've called this as an obvious acquisition target, though not one without risks. It's them and CDPR are this point as really the only two major needle movers who aren't major publishers.

Kadokawa enhances their anime and manga business as well as delivering FromSoftware.

They already own a percentage of Kadokawa and FromSoftware, this would put them in the driver seat.

Making Bluepoint act as a support studio for FromSoftware would also enhance what they're able to do technically and we'd be looking at continuations of not only Elden Ring, but Demon's Souls and Bloodborne as well. It's kind of a no-brainer, especially moving forward with a PC Store.

Elden Ring 2 makes for a massive exclusive on a PC store.
 

mibu no ookami

Veteran
21 Feb 2024
2,231
2,026
Market cap of 2.9 billion dollars. With premium you're looking at anywhere between 3.625 and 4.35 billion dollars less the percentage of stock they already own (the currently own 2% of Kadokawa, or about 58 million dollars worth).
 

Polyh3dron

Veteran
31 Jan 2024
759
531
This is too big of a company with too many different divisions that would be redundant with a lot of existing Sony businesses such as Aniplex. It seems like a lot of baggage if they just want to buy From Software. What happens if they buy it and Miyazaki and other key creatives leave?

From already made Demon's Souls for Sony and then just made a spiritual successor with Bandai Namco called Dark Souls, they're not necessarily attached to IP.
 

jp21

Newbie
17 Sep 2024
4
2
Oh god please no. This is more about anime than From or anything else. This would literally make a monopoly on anime.
 

mibu no ookami

Veteran
21 Feb 2024
2,231
2,026
Obvious choice for sony
I also think sony wants to by cd project and make gog there pc launcher imo

GOG isn't a great launcher, but you would seemingly be able to bring that staff over, and obviously you get the talent behind Witcher and Cyberpunk. They would complement the rest of Sony's studios really well.

I've posited that Sony is in a race to come up with 50 billion dollars and having From and CDPR are the best ways to get there.
 

DarkLordOtaku

Veteran
18 Oct 2024
612
323
30
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
I've called this as an obvious acquisition target, though not one without risks. It's them and CDPR are this point as really the only two major needle movers who aren't major publishers.

Kadokawa enhances their anime and manga business as well as delivering FromSoftware.

They already own a percentage of Kadokawa and FromSoftware, this would put them in the driver seat.

Making Bluepoint act as a support studio for FromSoftware would also enhance what they're able to do technically and we'd be looking at continuations of not only Elden Ring, but Demon's Souls and Bloodborne as well. It's kind of a no-brainer, especially moving forward with a PC Store.

Elden Ring 2 makes for a massive exclusive on a PC store.
The only thing about a Japanese company like Sony purchasing Kadokawa (which would be a pretty pricy acquistion) is it might get held up by Japanese anti-trust laws.
 

mibu no ookami

Veteran
21 Feb 2024
2,231
2,026
Oh god please no. This is more about anime than From or anything else. This would literally make a monopoly on anime.

It's definitely about both. They'd just buy From if it was limited to that, though it's probably easier to buy Kadokawa than From at this point. Buying Kadokawa, they can push Tencent out of FromSoftware too.

This is too big of a company with too many different divisions that would be redundant with a lot of existing Sony businesses such as Aniplex. It seems like a lot of baggage if they just want to buy From Software. What happens if they buy it and Miyazaki and other key creatives leave?

From already made Demon's Souls for Sony and then just made a spiritual successor with Bandai Namco called Dark Souls, they're not necessarily attached to IP.

There aren't that many redundancies here, though if they find some they can probably to do post merger integrations to save costs, but not all acquisitions lead to layoffs. Kadokawa could still operate as a subsidiary of Sony.

Buying Kadokawa rather than just FromSoftware mitigates the risks involved in just buying FromSoftware and creatives leaving, but there isn't inherently a reason for them to leave in this case. If anything they get back the rights to Demon's Souls and Bloodborne. It's good news for them. Maybe Sony ponies up the money to buy Dark Souls or they just move forward as if Dark Souls was Demon's Souls. And they already bought Elden Ring.