Elden Ring maker buys one of Japan's largest board game companies

Arclight, one of Japan's largest board game publishers, has been acquired by the same entertainment company that owns the creator of Elden Ring, Bloodborne, and the Dark Souls video game series.

Arclight announced its purchase by Kadokawa Group in an April 26 press release (thanks, BoardGameWire) for an undisclosed amount, and a separate press release from Kadokawa Group simply mentions the purchase of shares in the board game publisher with a long and storied history within Japan's board game scene.

Kadokawa is currently valued at around $2 billion thanks to a huge portfolio of businesses in traditional publishing (magazines, books and manga), anime, film and video games, most notably its ownership of FromSoftware and its mega-popular action RPG titles.

Elden Ring has made the studio a household name and has spawned a multi-part board game series currently being developed by UK studio Steamforged Games, along with an official Japan-only tabletop RPG adaptation and, most recently, a webcomic announced in February. As BoardGameWire mentions, this acquisition opens the door for other Kadokawa properties to enjoy board game adaptation.

“It can also be said that light novels, which now have a large readership, are derived from analog games,” said Masayuki Aoyagi, editorial director of Kadokawa. “By welcoming Arclight, with whom we have been collaborating for many years, into our group, we aim to accelerate our analog game development business, discover new creators in the game markets, and expand our domestic analog games to the world through ties with overseas game markets.”

Arclight organizes the Tokyo Game Market and owns 32 Hobby Station outlets in Japan, selling collectible card games and other titles. Since its inception in 1998, Arclight has imported and localized board games and other products from around the world, including Gloomhaven, Everdell, Root, and Wingspan. It also helps new board games travel in the other direction; it recently partnered with LionWing to localize Kedamono Opera for an English-speaking audience.

Arclight President Kohsuke Fukumoto said in the press release that he was “convinced that we could grow our business” by merging with Kadokawa, increasing the company's ability to “expand overseas and link our business with IP.”