1980s and 1990s , company president and director of several of their games|upright=.8 Founded in Tokyo on November 1, 1986, by Naotoshi Zin, FromSoftware originally began as a developer of
business applications before shifting focus to video games. The company released its first game, ''
King's Field'', for the PlayStation in 1994. Despite its commercial success in Japan, the game was not released in other regions, although 1995's ''
King's Field II was released in both North America and Europe in 1996. After releasing King's Field III in 1996, FromSoftware went on to release the horror game Echo Night and the 1998 role-playing game Shadow Tower. In 1997, FromSoftware released Armored Core, the first release in its flagship Armored Core'' series of mecha combat games.
2000s With the launch of the
PlayStation 2 in 2000, FromSoftware released the role-playing games
Eternal Ring and
Evergrace. In 2003, FromSoftware published
Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, a
stealth game that combines action and adventure elements. In 2004, FromSoftware bought the rights to the series, excluding the first two games, from
Activision. The company also released ''
King's Field IV and Shadow Tower Abyss, in addition to the Lost Kingdoms series for the GameCube. These include Dark Souls II (2014), Bloodborne (2015), Dark Souls III (2016), Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019), and Elden Ring (2022), all of which have received several awards and are often listed among the greatest video games of all time. In April 2014, Kadokawa Corporation announced its intention to purchase the company from former shareholder Transcosmos. Following other restructuring, Souls'' creator Hidetaka Miyazaki would be promoted to company president the following month and later given the title of representative director. In January 2016, FromSoftware established a studio in
Fukuoka that focuses on creating
computer-generated imagery (CGI) assets for its games.
2020s In August 2022, Sixjoy Hong Kong (a subsidiary of
Tencent) and
Sony Interactive Entertainment respectively acquired 16.25% and 14.09% of FromSoftware, leaving 69.66% to Kadokawa. In November 2022, a report by
GamesIndustry.biz claimed that FromSoftware was paying its employees at sub-standard rates. The company had 423 employees . In October 2024, the developer announced a salary increase of approximately 12% for its employees. In April 2025, FromSoftware announced
The Duskbloods, a multiplayer-focused
soulslike game directed by Miyazaki for the
Nintendo Switch 2. ==Games==