Sony forms ‘business alliance’ with Elden Ring firm but doesn’t buy all of it-Michael Beckwith-Entertainment – Metro

Looks like Elden Ring is staying multiplatform after all (FromSoftware)

A team-up between Sony and Kadokawa seems more focused on accelerating movie and TV adaptations than making Elden Ring a PlayStation exclusive.

Last month, it was reported that Sony was gearing up for a potentially massive acquisition, of Elden Ring developer FromSoftware and its parent company Kadokawa Corporation.

Kadokawa itself later confirmed Sony had expressed interest in acquiring further shares in the company. This, of course, reignited debates about monopolies and further consolidation of the industry, especially since Sony would be getting more than just one game developer.

Sony and Kadokawa have now confirmed they’ve reached an agreement, and the result isn’t as dramatic as some feared but will see the two collaborating far more closely on multimedia initiatives, like film and television.

Ultimately, Sony isn’t buying out Kadokawa in its entirety, so don’t expect any future Elden Ring sequels or spin-offs to suddenly go PlayStation-only.

However, Sony is buying more shares in Kadokawa; 12,054,100 of them to be exact. This is set to cost Sony approximately 50 billion yen, which is about £252 million.

Sony originally only had a 1.93% stake in Kadokawa, but these additional shares will bump that stake up to 10%. That will make the PlayStation company Kadokawa’s largest shareholder, according to a joint statement from both companies, giving them more influence than anyone else over the company’s future.

The pair are calling this a ‘strategic capital and business alliance agreement,’ with the goal being to ‘maximise both companies’ IP value globally and facilitate wider and deeper collaboration.’

Other Kadokawa properties include visual novel series Danganronpa (Spike Chunsoft)

While this does make it easier for Sony to negotiate more FromSoftware exclusives (like Bloodborne and the original Demon’s Souls) their primary interest in the deal seems to be in assisting Kadokawa with adapting its franchises into film and/or TV. So, expect any Elden Ring movie or anime spin-off to be a Sony production.

The companies’ exact words are, ‘In the future, the two companies plan to discuss specific initiatives for collaboration, such as initiatives to adapt Kadokawa’s IP into live-action films and TV dramas globally, co-produce anime works, expand global distribution of Kadokawa’s anime works through the Sony Group, further expand publishing of Kadokawa’s games, and develop human resources to promote and expand virtual production.’

As a reminder, Kadokawa also owns a number of businesses throughout the entertainment sector, including not just video game companies, but anime studios,andpublishers for manga and light novels.

In fact, it was speculated Sony’s interest in Kadokawa was primarily to gain more control of the anime business. A Bloomberg report from November claimed Kadokawa wanted a full takeover from Sony, but the latter only wanted to extract their anime and gaming related assets.

This lines up with Sony’s statement that it has no plans to buy further shares in Kadokawa, although it could always change its mind later down the line.

While the exact implications of the partnership remain unclear it does now make it impossible for Microsoft, or any other PlayStation rival, to acquire FromSoftware, which is likely to have also been a motivation – although not one Sony would admit in public.

It’s speculated that they acquired Bungie for similar reasons, which is somewhat borne out by their rough treatment of the studio since then.

There’s already an Elden Ring manga, so a movie or anime isn’t too unreasonable (Kadokawa)

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