If you've ever worried about the future of Elden Ring and Dark Souls, here's a development worth paying attention to. The company that once told Nintendo it should charge players 99 cents just to make Mario jump higher has now acquired a significant stake in Kadokawa, the Japanese media conglomerate that owns FromSoftware.
Oasis Management Company, a Hong Kong-based international hedge fund, has purchased an 8.86% share of Kadokawa. The firm describes the acquisition as being made for "important proposal activities," which is the kind of vague corporate language that tends to make people nervous.
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Who Is Oasis Management, Exactly?
Oasis Management isn't a name most gamers would recognize, but it made headlines in gaming circles about a decade ago for all the wrong reasons. Back in 2014, the firm sent an open letter to then-Nintendo president Satoru Iwata pushing Nintendo to develop games for mobile devices. That part aged fine, actually. Nintendo did eventually move into mobile with titles like Super Mario Run, Pikmin Bloom, and Fire Emblem Heroes.
What didn't age well was this particular suggestion from that same letter: "We believe Nintendo can create very profitable games based on in-game revenue models with the right development team. Just think of paying 99 cents just to get Mario to jump a little higher."
Yeah. That one.
Nintendo, to its enormous credit, did not do that. The suggestion has been mocked consistently ever since as a textbook example of investors who understand spreadsheets but not the first thing about what makes games actually work.
What Kadokawa Actually Controls
Kadokawa is a sprawling Japanese media company with manga, anime, and video game properties under its roof. Most relevant to this conversation is its majority ownership of FromSoftware, the studio behind Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. Sony is currently the next-largest shareholder in Kadokawa after previous acquisition discussions put the company in the spotlight.
So the shareholder picture around FromSoftware's parent company is getting increasingly crowded and complicated.
Dark Souls bonfire rest screen
What "Important Proposals" Could Actually Mean
Here's the thing: activist investors don't buy stakes in companies just to sit quietly. Oasis's own language around "important proposal activities" signals they intend to push for changes at Kadokawa. What those changes look like remains unclear, but the firm's history suggests they'll be focused on monetization and shareholder returns.
Whether that translates to any pressure on FromSoftware's creative direction is a much bigger question, and one that can't be answered yet. FromSoftware has operated with a remarkable degree of creative independence under Kadokawa's ownership. Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team have consistently delivered games that prioritize design integrity over trend-chasing.
The 99-cents-to-jump comment was made over a decade ago. People and organizations can change. But it's fair to say that the gaming community will be watching Oasis's next moves at Kadokawa very closely, especially with Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 having just launched and the FromSoftware fanbase as passionate as ever.
Keep an eye on the latest gaming news for updates as Kadokawa responds to its new investor and any proposals become public. Make sure to check out more:
