FromSoftware

FromSoftware started out making business software in 1986, founded by Naotoshi Zin. The company's first video game, King's Field, hit the original PlayStation in 1994 and sold well enough to shift their focus entirely to games. Two more King's Field titles followed, and then in 1997 they launched the mecha shooter series Armored Core, which became a long-running franchise.

Through the 2000s, FromSoftware released a variety of games including the horror series Echo Night, the dungeon crawler Shadow Tower, the action titles Lost Kingdoms and Otogi, and the crossover series Another Century's Episode. But the company's real breakthrough came in 2009 with Demon's Souls, a punishing action RPG directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki. That game's success led to the Dark Souls trilogy, which critics often rank among the greatest games ever made. The studio's signature high difficulty and environmental storytelling spawned the Soulslike subgenre, carried forward in later titles like Bloodborne (2015), Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019), and Elden Ring (2022).

Miyazaki took over as president in 2014, with Zin staying on as an advisor. Miyazaki continues to direct most of the company's major games while handling executive duties. FromSoftware is majority-owned by Kadokawa Corporation (70%), with minority stakes from Tencent subsidiary Sixjoy Hong Kong (16%) and Sony Interactive Entertainment (14%). The company self-publishes in Japan and has worked with global partners like Bandai Namco, Sony, and Sega.[edit]