Sony And Tencent Have Bought Up Over 30% Of Elden Ring Developer FromSoftware
Technically, it's not Tencent who's doing the purchasing directly, but rather a wholly owned subsidiary known as Sixjoy Hong Kong Limited. Sixjoy purchased 1,703 shares while Sony Interactive Entertainment purchased 1,476 shares, both at a price of 11,450,000 JPY per share, or about $81,712 each. FromSoftware's parent company, Japanese media mega-conglomerate Kadokawa, still holds a dominant controlling stake in the game developer, with 69.66% of the company's shares in hand.
Neither of the investments are particularly surprising to anyone that's been following these companies. Tencent, through Tencent Japan, has had an ongoing relationship with Kadokawa. Tencent invested $264m USD into the publisher back in October of last year, and that's mostly as part of an attempt to promote Kadokawa's anime and games in China.
The stated ambition of the move is to "strengthen FromSoftware’s capabilities to create and develop game IP." There's also a mention in the press release [PDF] about "establishing a framework that allows expansion of the scope of FromSoftware's own publishing in the global market." FromSoftware has acted as a publisher in Japan in the past, but traditionally has partnered with larger publishing houses for its own titles, particularly overseas. It may be that the company wants to expand its publishing operations, or even self-publish its own games in the future.