Sony is officially in talks to acquire Kadokawa, the Japanese media conglomerate behind hundreds of manga, anime, and video game properties. The publisher even holds a 70% share in powerhouse FromSoftware of Dark Souls and Elden Ring fame, and one investor reportedly reckons that the acquisition is worth it for the studio’s creative frontman alone.
Hidetaka Miyazaki has long been responsible for FromSoftware’s biggest hits, having directed everything from Dark Souls and Bloodborne to Elden Ring and Armored Core, which has since made him one of the industry’s most revered and well-known names. Now, his desolate and often punishing RPGs are centre stage in a multi-billion dollar buyout.
Speaking to Bloomberg, one unnamed investor reportedly joked that Sony‘s proposed acquisition would be worth the billions solely to have Miyazaki and his games on board, as the famed director “alone can be worth at least a third of Kadokawa’s market value.” That might be a jokey overestimation, but Miyazaki has put out non-stop hits for well over a decade and the company is already hammering away at “various new projects.” Many of FromSoft’s fantasy worlds would also be ripe for anime, manga, and live-action adaptations – avenues that Sony has been aggressively chasing as of late with multiple PlayStation TV shows and its 2020 Crunchyroll acquisition.
Analyst Robin Zhu also told Bloomberg that the deal could be “one of the most consequential transactions in the video game industry’s history” with how much potential there is for well-known anime to be turned into video games and vice versa. A former Blizzard boss even echoed the sentiment and said the “only thing bigger” would be if Sony bought Nintendo or Valve.
Take a trip down memory lane with the best FromSoftware games of all time to see what Sony might end up owning.