FromSoftware: The Business-Software Firm That Taught the World to Die

On November 1, 1986, a small company opened in Tokyo to write business software. Its founder, Naotoshi Zin, had no plans to make games. Nearly forty years later, that company, FromSoftware, makes the games other studios study: punishing, mysterious action RPGs that have sold tens of millions of copies and spawned their own genre, the "soulslike".

The studio is in an unusual spot right now. Elden Ring has sold more than 30 million copies. Its co-op spin-off Elden Ring Nightreign did well enough that its owner calls it a strong performer. A Nintendo Switch 2 version, Elden Ring Tarnished Edition, arrived on August 28, 2026. And on October 29, 2026, FromSoftware said its next new game, the Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods, would slip from 2026 to 2027.

Here is how a business-software company became the most influential action-game studio of its generation.

From spreadsheets to dungeons

FromSoftware's first game was King's Field, released for the original PlayStation in 1994. It was a slow, first-person dungeon crawl, dark and deliberately obscure, and it already had the studio's fingerprints: hostile worlds, hidden secrets and very little hand-holding. Sequels followed, and in 1997 the studio launched Armored Core, a mech-combat series that kept it busy for the next decade.

For most of its history FromSoftware was a respected mid-size Japanese developer, not a global name. It made mechs, ninja games and licensed titles, and few outside Japan knew what it was.

The accidental genius

The man who changed that joined the company late. Hidetaka Miyazaki, born in 1974, studied social sciences at Keio University and then worked as an account manager at Oracle. In his late twenties he played Ico, decided he wanted to make games, and joined FromSoftware at 29 with no industry experience. His first job was as a planner on Armored Core: Last Raven in 2004.

Miyazaki had come to video games late for a simple reason: his parents did not allow them until he went to university. As a child he played gamebooks such as Sorcery! and tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons and RuneQuest instead, and the influence of those paper adventures, with their deadly traps and sparse descriptions, is easy to see in his work.

His break came with a troubled project that the company reportedly saw as a failure in the making: Demon's Souls, released for PlayStation 3 in 2009. Miyazaki took it over and turned it into something new, a game that was brutally hard, fair, and full of quiet, wordless storytelling. It found a cult audience, and Dark Souls in 2011 turned the cult into a movement.

Then came Bloodborne (2015), Dark Souls III (2016), Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019), which won Game of the Year at The Game Awards, and Elden Ring (2022), built with world-building from fantasy author George R. R. Martin, which won the same prize again.

Who owns FromSoftware

In 2014, the Japanese media group Kadokawa bought FromSoftware, and in May 2014 Miyazaki became its president. It is a rare arrangement in games: the studio's star director also runs the company.

In August 2022, two of the biggest names in games bought in. Tencent's subsidiary Sixjoy Hong Kong took 16.25%, and Sony Interactive Entertainment took 14.09%, leaving Kadokawa with 69.66%. Then, in January 2025, Sony went a step further and became Kadokawa's largest shareholder with a stake of about 10%, a deal worth about ¥50 billion announced in December 2024.

The result is a tangle of relationships. Bandai Namco publishes Elden Ring. Nintendo is co-publishing The Duskbloods on Switch 2. Sony owns part of FromSoftware and part of its parent company. And Tencent holds a stake too. Few studios in the world are courted by so many giants at once.

The Elden Ring machine

Elden Ring passed 30 million copies in April 2025, according to Bandai Namco, and its expansion Shadow of the Erdtree sold more than 10 million. By July 2025, the Elden Ring series as a whole, including the newer Nightreign, had passed 45 million units.

Nightreign, released in May 2025, was something different: a three-player co-op survival take on Elden Ring's world, built by a smaller team and sold at a lower price. Kadokawa said in May 2026 that Nightreign "performed strongly" and that its expansion, The Forsaken Hollows, had a high attach rate, meaning many owners bought it. Kadokawa also admitted its games revenue fell year on year, because the previous year had included Shadow of the Erdtree's huge launch.

The studio has not forgotten its roots, either. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, published by Bandai Namco in 2023, revived the mech series after a decade-long break and proved FromSoftware's audience would follow it outside the soulslike genre.

The Tarnished Edition brought Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree to Nintendo Switch 2 on August 28, 2026, years after the original release, giving the game a new audience on a new platform.

The Duskbloods slips to 2027

The Duskbloods was announced in April 2025 as a FromSoftware game made exclusively for Switch 2, a multiplayer action game with a gothic, vampire-tinged world. It was due in 2026.

In October 2026, after a network test in August, the studio said it would move the game to 2027 to make final adjustments to its game rules and balancing. That leaves Switch 2 without a FromSoftware original this year, but it fits the studio's habits: FromSoftware has always valued getting the feel right over hitting a date.

The delay also says something about where the studio is heading. Since Elden Ring, FromSoftware's new projects, Nightreign and The Duskbloods, have both been built around playing with other people. Fans who want another lonely, single-player descent into darkness will have to wait for an announcement that has not come yet.

By the numbers

• 1986: FromSoftware founded in Tokyo as a business-software company.
• 1994: first game, King's Field.
• 30 million+: Elden Ring copies sold (April 2025).
• 45 million+: Elden Ring series units, including Nightreign (July 2025).
• 16.25% / 14.09%: Tencent's and Sony's stakes, bought in 2022.
• 2027: new release window for The Duskbloods.

Why it matters

FromSoftware proved that difficulty is not a barrier to mass success. Before Demon's Souls, the industry wisdom was that games should be smoother, easier and more guided to reach a big audience. Elden Ring's 30 million copies say otherwise. Players will happily die a hundred times if the world is worth it.

The business lesson is just as important. FromSoftware stayed mid-sized, kept its director in charge and let giants compete to work with it rather than being swallowed by one. WGC's take: in an era of studio closures and mega-mergers, that independence-with-friends model looks smarter every year.

What to play next

• Elden Ring, now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and, with the Tarnished Edition, Switch 2.
• Elden Ring Nightreign, if you want the same world with two friends and much shorter sessions.
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, still the purest test of FromSoftware's combat design.
• The Duskbloods, now due in 2027 on Switch 2. Keep an eye on FromSoftware's official channels for a new date.