Sony seems to want to go after Xbox. They want to add a major studio to their PlayStation stable.
Xbox set a trend in recent years by acquiring major studios. Among other things, it took over Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard and paid big bucks for Skyrim and Fallout maker Bethesda. PlayStation now appears to be looking to make just such an acquisition.
Sony has its eye on Kadokawa. That name may not mean anything to you, but this company owns 69.6 percent of From Software’s shares. Sony currently already has 14 percent shares in From Software, bringing the total to about 84 percent.
Will PlayStation run off with the Elden Ring maker?
Sony regularly makes acquisitions in gaming land, but then the studios are often somewhat smaller. For example, it used to buy Insomniac, which makes the Spider-Man games, and Guerilla, the maker of Horizon, among others.
With From Software, PlayStation would add another major studio that makes unique games, if Reuters’ report is correct. The studio you know mostly from Elden Ring is actually the father of soulborne games, or high difficulty games that punish you rock hard if you make a wrong move. Well-known games from the studio include Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne.
Elden Ring (Image: Bandai Namco)
But Kadokawa has more in its portfolio than much of Dark Souls. For example, the package also includes Acquire, which recently made the game Mario & Luigi: Brothership. However, that does not mean that Mario will come to the PlayStation, as those rights simply belong to Nintendo. Another studio again has Octopath Traveler, a well-known RPG.
An addition?
So with Kadokawa, PlayStation is bringing in a studio with knowledge it doesn’t already have. It doesn’t have a really big RPG of its own, and Kadokawa with From Software can certainly help with that. The big advantage is that those studios will have a sizable budget with them as one of the drivers to buy a PlayStation 5.
However, there is also a downside. Should the acquisition actually go through, we will lose another independent studio. Previously, of course, we saw Bethesda and Activision Blizzard go to Xbox. Especially independent studios can come up with masterful games that you don’t expect, like thus Elden Ring.
