Sony and Tencent make big investment in Elden Ring maker FromSoftware

polygon.com:

Tencent Holdings and Sony have teamed up to acquire a nearly one-third stake in Elden Ringdeveloper FromSoftware, the studio’s parent company announced on Wednesday.

The deal means a Tencent subsidiary owns 16.25% of FromSoftware’s shares, while Sony Interactive Entertainment owns 14.09%. The rest is owned by FromSoftware parent Kadokawa Corporation.

Shanghai-based Tencent is the world’s largest video game vendor, owing largely to its dominance within China’s vast market. It’s also well known for taking significant positions in — if not buying outright — big-name publishers and developers outside of China.

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Tencent fully acquired League of Legendsmaker Riot Games at the end of 2015; Norwegian MMO house Funcom at the beginning of 2020, a roughly 40% stake in Epic Games in 2012; and it is the majority shareholder in gaming companies like Supercell (Clash of Clans), Fatshark (Warhammer: Vermintide 2), and Tequila Works (Deadlight, Rime). Tencent also bought 5 percent of Activision Blizzard in 2013 (freeing that company from Vivendi Universal), but those shares will be purchased by Microsoft in its $68.7 billion bid for the Call of Duty publisher.

Sony’s investment reflects its ongoing effort to acquire or strengthen ties to studios well known for making PlayStation games. (FromSoftware is also the creator of the Souls series of RPGs, starting with the PlayStation 3 exclusive Demon’s Souls in 2009, and made Bloodborne for Sony in 2015.) The company in January spent $3.6 billion to acquire Destiny 2 maker Bungie; snapped up Housemarque, maker of PS5 exclusive Returnal, in mid-2021; and bought Insomniac Games at the beginning of 2020. Sony also acquired fighting games’ Evolution Championship Series and anime