Elden Ring represents developer FromSoftware at the team’s beautiful, brilliant best. That ought to make parent company Kadokawa Corporation proud. That’s good since Kadokawa is probably pretty disappointed in chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa right now. He was just charged on suspicion of bribery.
Kadokawa, who is in charge of the entirety of the company that bears his name, was arrested in mid-September. According to VGC, he has now been charged with bribing a member of the Tokyo Olympics Committee. The summer Olympics were held in Japan back in 2020, so it would seem this charge has been a long time coming. Kadokawa’s alleged bribe amounts to 69 million yen, which converts to roughly $478,000 USD.
Apparently, Kadokawa wasn’t alone in these actions, but he’s taking a step in the right direction by stepping down from his position. “I have decided to resign as chairman of Kadokawa,” he stated. “This incident is a great ordeal for Kadokawa, and I believe that it needs a new structure in order to overcome it.” It’s a refreshing move, especially in comparison to ongoing scandals at American video game companies.
Kadokawa Corporation was a topic in video game news before this legal charge. Sony and Tencent now own shares in FromSoftware, with a 14% and a 16% stake, respectively. This leaves Kadokawa as the majority owner. The corporation controls not just FromSoftware, but also Spike Chunsoft, Gotcha Gotcha Games, and others. Perhaps this shake-up could be an opportunity for Sony to push further into FromSoftware. We already know that Bloodborne and Elden Ring movies from PlayStation Productions aren’t out of the question.
Tsuguhiko Kadokawa isn’t the only name from his company that you might’ve seen recently. A Lollipop Chainsaw remake is on the way in 2023, and Yoshimi Yasuda is working on it. Yasuda was part of the original development team, but he was also once the CEO of Kadokawa’s games division.
