Sony has shown a of lot interest in FormSoftware, and they recently acquired 30 percent of the studio along with Tencent’s Sixjoy Hong Kong division. FromSoftware’s parent company, the Kadokawa Group will still remain the largest shareholder with a 69.99 percent stake. Sony will own a 14.09 percent stake and the rest, 16.25 percent will be owned by Tencent. With the sale, the Kadokawa Group will be able to raise 36.4 billion yen or approximately $262 million. The company mainly plans to use the funds for the further expansion of its game business. FromSoftware will also be able to invest in bigger and better games, and leverage their existing IP in more ways, for example, with mobile spin-off games. Usually FromSoftware games are published by other companies such as Bandai Namco and Sony. With funds from the sale, FromSoftware will also try and expand the scope of self publishing its own titles. Sony, just in the last fiscal year acquired five studios including Housemarque, Nixxes Software, Firesprite, Bluepoint and Valkyrie entertainment. Sony’s CEO, Jim Ryan in a business brief stated, “The purpose of these investments is to increase our core strength at PlayStation Studios, but also to acquire expertise in areas of game development where historically we have not had a significant presence.” While the FormSoftware stake isn’t an a complete acquisition, it is still a very important strategic investment for Sony. Read More: Sony Could Be Working on a ‘PlayStation PC launcher’ for Future Releases
