Playstation alone will have 'Souls'

Sony plans to buy Kadokawa, which owns most of FromSoftware, a popular and prestigious Japanese studio, according to Reuters. FromSoftware is known for soulslike franchises like ‘Elden Ring’ and its successful predecessors, ‘Sekiro’, ‘Dark Souls’, and ‘Bloodborne’. Reuters reports that negotiations are going well and an announcement is expected in the coming weeks.

Negotiations have been kept quiet by both companies. From Software is 70% owned by Kadokawa and 14% by Sony. Sony has only 2% of Kadokawa, a symbolic stake that has paved the way for this possible purchase.

Kadokawa began publishing books and magazines in 1945. They entered the video game industry in the 1990s, similar to FromSoftware, which was founded in 1986 and served other industries before switching to video games.

‘Dark Souls 3’ remaster rumors were revealed in the Xbox Era podcast. It sold 10 million copies worldwide, making it the franchise’s best-selling game. It’s the cherry on top of FromSoftware’s future: its games could be exclusive to Sony’s console, which would boost Playstation catalog interest and directly compete with Microsoft’s recent acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision.

Sony may gain another major weapon. Sony is reportedly in talks to acquire Kadokawa, the parent company of From Software, which developed Elden Ring and Dark Souls.

The report says talks are underway and a deal could be reached in weeks. Sony already owns 2% of Kadokawa and 14% of From Software, but this would totally control both. This acquisition would give Sony another way to control manga and anime properties, as Sony already owns Crunchyroll and Funimation.

Sony owning FromSoftware could mean that future FromSoftware games are PlayStation exclusives, released on PS5 (PS6) but not Xbox like Elden Ring. A FromSoft game could launch on Steam later due to Sony’s delayed PC release schedule.

Players can duel, help, and leave messages in Dark Souls and Elden Ring, making them multiplayer. Sony has said that its multiplayer games will be released on PC alongside consoles, but these FromSoft games are mostly single-player, so it would be a unique classification.

This Sony Kadokawa deal may face regulatory scrutiny, unlike Microsoft’s massive Activision Blizzard purchase. Microsoft left Activision Blizzard, Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, etc. IP as multiplatform titles.

Sony recently agreed to leave Bungie’s games multiplatform after buying the company, which includes Destiny 2 and Marathon. Sony buying FromSoftware could mean future games are still multiplatform. I think all gamers hope that, except Sony superfans who see exclusivity as a console war “win.”

Kadokawa and Sony declined to comment on this report. We’ll know more when this is official, but even if the deal goes through and we learn the price, we may not know much about future FromSoftware games for a while.

Playstation alone will have ‘Souls’

By nr39r

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