Sony is reportedly in talks to acquire FromSoftware owner Kadokawa

Sony is reportedly in talks to acquire Kadokawa Corporation.

Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the situation, reports that talks between Sony and Kadokawa are ongoing.

It says that should the negotiations prove successful, a deal could be made in the coming weeks.

Sony declined to comment on Reuters’ report, while Kadokawa said it couldn’t comment.

Kadokawa Corporation is a Japanese media conglomerate which owns a number of companies specialising in book and manga publishing, film production, DVD sales and cross media.

Of greater interest to video game enthusiasts, however, is that Kadokawa also owns a majority share in FromSoftware, the studio behind Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Sekiro and the Dark Souls games. Should the acquisition be successful, then, Sony would therefore also own FromSoftware.

Kadokawa also owns Dwango, a Japanese telecoms and media company which owns developer Spike Chunsoft (most recently responsible for Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero).

Earlier this year, it also bought Acquire, the Tokyo studio known in recent years for Octopath Traveler, Octopath Traveler II and Mario & Lugi: Brothership.

Kadokawa’s share price shot up overnight as a result of Sony acquisition reports, closing at an increase of 23% to ¥3,745 – their all-time highest value.

This turnaround is particularly notable given that earlier this year Kadokawa’s share price dropped by over 20% following a cyberattack in June in which a ransomware gang claimed to have hacked 1.5TB of data from the company, including private information on employees.