Sony and a subsidiary of Tencent called Sixjoy have announced an investment in Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, purchasing 30% of the company; Sony has 14.09%, Tencent 16.25%. FromSoftware’s majority stakeholder, Kadokawa, said of the news in a statement:
“FromSoftware decided to conduct the Third-Party Allotment to Sixjoy within the Tencent Group, which has strength in its capabilities to develop and deploy mobile games and other network technologies in the global market including China, and SIE within the Sony Group, which has strength in its capabilities to deploy IP in games, videos and various other media in the global market, concurrently and separately.”
The success of Elden Ring is likely a driving factor in Sony and Tencent’s investment in the developer, and by all accounts parent company Kadokawa is set to deliver more content for the game moving forward. Back in March, Bandai Namco boss Yasuo Miyakawa explained said in a joint statement with FromSoftware that “Much effort was placed into creating Elden Ring so that we could exceed the expectations of our fans worldwide… In like manner, we will continue our efforts in expanding the brand beyond the game itself, and into everyone’s daily life.”
That doesn’t mean, however, that FromSoftware is committed to only Elden Ring development moving forward; Kadokawa also mentions that investment will go towards creating a new IP, too:
“FromSoftware will aim to proactively invest in the development of more powerful game IP for itself to strengthen FromSoftware’s development capabilities and will seek to establish a framework that allows the expansion of the scope of its own publishing in the significantly growing global market.”