Kadokawa, the parent company of Elden Ring and Armored Core 6 developer FromSoftware, has announced that it has "acquired" (ahem) Octopath Traveler co-development studio Acquire.
In an earnings presentation for the third quarter of the 2023 fiscal year, Kadokawa says it has "made Acquire Corp. into a wholly owned subsidiary" in order to "further strengthen the ability to create IP in games".
It's not clear how much Kadokawa paid to acq-er, purchase Acquire from previous owner GungHo Online Entertainment, the former parent company of Grasshopper Manufacture (before the studio's sale to NetEase in 2021).
The acquisition of Acquire is, according to Kadokawa's earnings presentation, intended to "generate synergies with [Kadokawa's] existing game-related subsidiaries", as well as "enhance [Kadokawa's] lineup of console games".
As well as working on the Octopath Traveler games with Square Enix, Acquire is also known for the Tenchu franchise, several installments of which were published by FromSoftware in Japan.
The developer is also responsible for the rather fanservice-heavy Akiba's Trip franchise, with 2017's Akiba's Beat being the last game in the series at time of writing.
Kadokawa's aims for Acquire include "lineup expansion, including redevelopment of past works", as well as "collaboration with FromSoftware and Spike Chunsoft". We'll have to wait and see what the fruits of those collaborations might be.
Elsewhere in the earnings report, Kadokawa reveals that its sales have declined both on a year-to-date basis and in the third quarter specifically.
The corporation attributes this drop to slowing sales of Elden Ring, although Kadokawa does say "repeat sales of the title have remained steady".
In addition, Armored Core 6 has apparently "contributed beyond expectations", according to Kadokawa, and the corporation also points to Elden Ring's upcoming DLC as a reason to be optimistic about its financial outlook.
Sadly, no release window for said DLC is provided, but it's part of the company's strategy to "improve profitability in the medium to long term", so it could be a while before we get to play Shadow of the Erdtree, unfortunately.
