Acquire may not be the most well-known Japanese game studio, but I'm sure you must've heard of some of their games. Tenchu, Way of the Samurai, Akiba's Trip and Octopath Traveler must ring at least a few bells. They've been around since 1994, and in 2011 they were acquired by MMO publisher GungHo Online Entertainment.

That changed very recently, when GungHo sold Acquire to Kadokawa Corporation for an undisclosed sum. Kadokawa are the parent company of game studios like Spike Chunsoft and FromSoftware, Japanese social media giant NicoNico, plus a bunch of anime & film studios as well as manga & literature publishing houses. Basically, they're one of the biggest media conglomerates in Japan.

In a quarterly earnings report, Kadokawa said: “To strengthen the ability to create IP in games as part of our game business strategy, we have made Acquire Corp. into a wholly owned subsidiary. By acquiring the company, which has produced million-seller hit titles, we expect to generate synergies with our existing game-related subsidiaries, strengthen our planning and development capabilities groupwide, and enhance our line-up of console games."

What this means is from now on, you can expect to see future Acquire games to be bigger and better than before, and it's possible Acquire could help other Kadokawa studios. In fact, the same earnings report mentioned the long-anticipated Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree, saying, “We are currently working hard on the development of DLC for Elden Ring but we have not announced a release date at this time." Oh well.

Have you guys played many Acquire games? Does this acquisition make any difference to you at all? Sound off below!