Kadokawa hails Armored Core 6 as a success, acquires Octopath Traveler developer

Adding another pillar to its studio line-up

Marco Wutz | Feb 8, 2024

Kadokawa hails Armored Core 6 as a success, acquires Octopath Traveler developer /

Kadokawa Corporation, the majority owner of FromSoftware and Spike Chunsoft, has purchased a majority stake in Acquire, the development studio behind Octopath Traveler, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. Though it worked with Square Enix for Octopath Traveler and self-published its Akiba’s Trip series, the studio founded in 1994 has worked with both FromSoftware and Spike Chunsoft on Tenchu and Way of the Samurai respectively, so there’s an established history of collaboration between all parties.

“By acquiring the company, which has produced million-seller hit titles, we expect to generate synergies with our existing game-related subsidiaries, strengthen our planning and development capabilities Groupwide, and enhance our lineup of console games,” Kadokawa wrote in its newly released financial results.

Armored Core 6 did well commercially on top of being a critical hit. — Armored Core 6 did well commercially on top of being a critical hit / FromSoftware

In this report, the company also hailed the success of FromSoftware’s Armored Core 6 in 2023, which has “contributed beyond expectations” to the company’s revenue. It did not disclose any exact sales numbers, though.

Though numbers in total were on the lower side than in the previous year, which probably wasn’t a surprise to anyone since Elden Ring launched in 2022, Kadokawa’s gaming segment showed an increased operating profit in the period between October and December 2023 year-on-year.

In terms of upcoming releases, the company set its hopes into FromSoftware’s Elden Ring DLC, about which we should hear more soon, and Spike Chunsoft’s Shiren the Wanderer 6.

Like many companies in the industry, Kadokawa sees much potential in leveraging its IP from other media in the gaming segment. It emphasized that its mobile games saw increased sales due to being linked with popular anime series Eminence in Shadow and specified plans to use the Re:ZERO IP in an upcoming mobile project.

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Published Feb 8, 2024

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg