The year of acquisitions and shareholding antics continues.
Just today, Chinese developer-publisher NetEase announced it was acquiring Detroit: Become Human dev Quantic Dream, and now, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Tencent have increased their stakes in From Software, the prolific developer behind the Dark Souls series and this year’s mega-hit, Elden Ring.
This news comes from Gematsu, which posted a press release from Kadokawa Corporation, the parent company behind From Software. It says that through third-party allotment, Sixjoy Hong Kong, a Tencent Holdings subsidiary, has purchased 16.25% of From Software’s shares, while SIE has acquired 14.09%. Despite this, Kadokawa Corporation is still the largest shareholder of From Software, holding 69.66% of the shares.
“Through the implementation of the fund procurement, From Software will aim to proactively invest in development of more powerful game IP for itself to strengthen From Software’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,” a press release reads. “In addition to these purposes, for an increase of the number of users in the global market for game IP that From Software creates and develops, From Software 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.”
Sony has been busy this year with acquisitions. It revealed it was buying Bungie, the developer behind the Destiny series, for $3.6 billion earlier this year and then later announced it was acquiring Jade Raymond’s new studio, Haven Studios. And just this week, Sony acquired Savage Game Studios to bolster its PlayStation Studios Mobile Division. Elsewhere in the industry, NetEase announced it was acquiring Quantic Dream today. Earlier this year, Take-Two Interactive, the parent company behind the Grand Theft Auto series, announced it was acquiring mobile giant Zynga for nearly $13 billion. That was the largest video game acquisition in history for roughly a week when Microsoft announced it was acquiring Activision Blizzard for a colossal $68.7 billion.
[Source: Gematsu]