Reuters: ‘Sony is interested in buying Elden Ring parent company Kadokawa’

Allegedly, Sony is in talks with the Japanese media company Kadokawa to acquire it and add its intellectual property to its entertainment portfolio.

Press agency Reuters is citing two sources familiar with the matter. They say that the talks between both sides are ongoing and could be signed in the coming weeks.

Kadokawa is a Japanese media conglomerate that specializes in publishing films, books, manga comics and video games. It’s best known for being the parent company of FromSoftware, the gaming studio that developed the Dark Souls franchises, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring.

The latter has sold over 25 million copies worldwide since its release in February 2022 and another 5 million units of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

According to Reuters, Sony already has a stake of 2 percent in Kadokawa and a stake in FromSoftware.

The Tokyo-based tech company allegedly wants to expand its entertainment portfolio. “Loveable characters and intellectual property (IP) can live for 30, 50 or 100 years. That’s something we want to make investment in for sustainable growth,” Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said last year.

Neither Sony nor Kadokawa commented on the news.

Last July, Kadokawa confirmed that the company was the target of a ‘significant cyberattack’. The Japanese media company launched an investigation into the impact and scope of the incident. At the time, the company was a hundred percent sure that no credit card information was stolen.

BlackSuit, a ransomware operation that emerged early April 2023, said it was responsible for the attack. The hacking group claimed to have stolen 1.5 terabytes of confidential data, including contracts, legal documents, user and employee information, business plans, project data, financial records, and other internal papers.

BlackSuit is known for infiltrating organizations, exfiltrating victim data and extorting victims.