FromSoftware’s parent company, the Japanese conglomerate Kadokawa Group, was the victim of a major data theft. it announced on Thursday. The Dark Souls The manufacturer’s owner said it is currently investigating “the possibility of an information leak” and the overall impact on its business in the coming year is “unclear.”
While FromSoftware’s global reputation has been the 25 million-selling hit Fire ring (published by Bandai Namco), the acclaimed game studio is just a small part of the Kadokawa Group, which is heavily involved in book publishing, the video-sharing service Niconico, and other media businesses.
“On Saturday, June 8, servers at Kadokawa Group’s data center were subject to a severe cyberattack, including ransomware, targeting Niconico and its related services,” the company wrote today. “Kadokawa is currently considering company-wide solutions and workarounds to normalize its systems and business activities.”
Kadokawa does not mention FromSoftware anywhere in its disclosure of the affected companies, so it is possible that the studio’s data and systems were not compromised in the attack. Kadokawa Group added that it does not store credit card information in its systems and currently plans to release an update on its systems and the ransomware hack in July.
This is not the first time that a FromSoftware partner has been hacked. Bandai Namco suffered a ransomware attack in 2022. Several other video game companies have done so as well, including Capcom, CD Projekt Red, and Insomniac Games. A now infamous data breach at Rockstar Games in 2022 resulted in the leak of an in-development version of Grand Theft Auto VI. Following this measures have been taken to limit remote working as part of efforts to increase security around the Games.
It is currently unknown what FromSoftware is working on next, but obviously hopes it is Bloodborne 2.
