Sony to become largest shareholder of FromSoftware parent Kadokawa Corporation

Sony is increasing its stake in Kadokawa Corporation, which will make it the FromSoftware parent’s biggest shareholder.

The company announced a “strategic capital and business alliance agreement” which will see Sony acquiring more than 12 million new shares in Kadokawa on January 7, 2025 for around ¥50 billion ($318 million).

Added to the Kadokawa shares that the PlayStation firm previously acquired in February 2021, this will give Sony an approximately 10% stake in the company.

Sony already owns a 14% stake in Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, which is owned by Kadokawa.

The agreement goes beyond the sale of shares. The two companies are planning to work together in future on a number of joint projects, including adapting some of Kadokawa’s IP into live-action films and TV dramas, co-producing anime works, and expanding the publishing and distribution for both Kadokawa’s anime and video games.

The news comes after Sony indicated interest in acquiring Kadokawa Corporation at the end of last month.

While Kadokawa is perhaps best known to the games industry for its ownership of FromSoftware, it also owns long-running Japanese developer Spike Chunsoft, Octopath Traveler co-developer Acquire and RPG Maker studio Gotcha Gotcha Games.

As our contributing editor Rob Fahey discussed, the implications of such an acquisition go far beyond video games, as Kadokawa also owns ventures in print publishing, movie and TV production, web services, real estate, and more.