https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJW2Byy5ZmE

Looks like there is news brewing of Sony purchasing FROM's parent company, Kadokawa Corporation. Currently Sony is has a fairly large stockhold share in Kadokawa Corporation, but this would mean that Sony would outright own FROM and not just have stock in it.

Either negotiations are still going on, or there may be an announcement soon in Sony purchasing Kadokawa Corporation. The Game Awards may be such a place for an announcement, or around that time (Shadow of the Erdtree was put up for a nominee as GOTY for The Game Awards for a reason, and it is normally used as a platform for announcements).

Reminder that Sony had the Helldivers 2 incident with the Playstation Network requirement account debacle, the failure release of Concord, and normally when a larger corporation like MS or Sony gets a new developer it can lead to tons of layoffs.

Thoughts?


Rumor of a Sony civil war is in the making/undergoing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py0ISZnPtII

The gist is that Sony of Japan and Sony of America are currently divided in how to continue with their brand, and it looks like some kind of split or consolidation may happen in the future. The interest of purchasing Kaokawa seems to stem from Sony of Japan as they want to go back to their original roots of game development, whereas Sony of America wants to continue on with projects such as The Last of Us and Horizon: Zero Dawn. Rumor is that Sony of America is also the reason that nothing has been done with Bloodborne since its release due to wanting to concentrate on more of the above mentioned games, and Sony of Japan wants more projects like Bloodborne.

Tencent also has a large corporate hold in stock in Kadokawa, which is going to make it even harder for Sony of Japan as they the company has an inner corporate civil war with its America counterpart.

These are just rumors, but should they pan out it could lead to Sony going back to what it once was, though how FROM will be handled in any of these scenarios of being brought under either Sony or Tencent is still up in the air.


Supposedly Kadokawa and Sony have been in negotiations for quite a while:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBB0O0FBFpE

Per the video, it seems that Kadokawa is looking for a buyer, and Sony only wanted the anime-related assets of Kadokawa. However, Kadokawa has pushed back on this, wanting their buyer (Sony) to purchase ALL of Kadokawa and not just select parts of it. Due to Kadokawa looking for a buyer, this will either force Sony's hand into a deal that is in Kadokawa's favor or they (Sony) will risk losing the purchase from another buyer willing to meet Kadokawa's demands.

If the above is true, Kadokawa will be bought out in the near future, and it looks like they are trying to strong-arm Sony into a deal. Which means FROMSOFT, for better or worse, will be under new managament.


More possible reasons as to why this deal is going to go through:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIrp8bLnumk

In this video, a few negatives that Kadokawa has gone through:

1. Not matter what in the foreseeable future, Kadokawa will be bought out. Currently Sony is the main target for the purchase, however Microsoft/Tencent/Kakao are also possible buyers should Sony and Kadokawa not be able to come to an agreement. Kadokawa does not favor a foreign entity (mainly they want the Japanese side of Sony to go with this deal) which is why they are so strong into making this happen ASAP.

2. All founding members of Kadokawa are reportedly gone from the company, as in the past they were against a sell but with the old guard gone the current leads are open to a buyout.

3. The success of Elden Ring has been a great boon to profits for Kadokawa, however, due to a large amount of issues that the company is facing this was basically a stopgap to larger issues looming over the horizon. A company restructuring was needed due to the former leadership participating in illegal bribery, and Kadokawa was victim to ransomware that was just recently dealt with.

4. As stated in #1, Kadokawa wants to keep everything that is sold off in Japan which hopefully means less meddling from Sony of America putting their hands in any acquisitions.

This is a really dire situation with the new rumors. The fact that Kadokawa has possibly mucked up so bad that it has to not only restructure the company but also has to do a sale really means that FROM might be getting the shaft should there be no buyout, and if Sony (who has had a terrible recent track record) doesn't buyout Kadokawa one of the other companies (MS, Tencent, and Kakao - all of which have their own issues) will end up with FROMSOFT.


A deal has been made:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZdHA5P7CzQ

TLDR - SONY is now the major shareholder of KADOKAWA, which means both KADOKAWA and FROM will remain an independent entity and SONY will have more say in some decisions.