A PlayStation executive has come out to clarify that she wasn’t teasing a possible acquisition of From Software. Director and global head of third-party portfolio, Shawne Benson, posted a photo of herself posing with a statue of Malenia from Elden Ring at work, which quickly escalated into rumours about Sony acquiring the acclaimed Japanese developer.

Benson posted a follow-up tweet over the weekend denying that she was ever teasing a From Software acquisition as her department focuses on content acquisitions and not studio acquisitions. The Elden Ring statue was simply placed there by her friend, and she saw an opportunity to take a cool photo.

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Despite Benson’s clarification on the subject, this didn’t stop fans from continuing to speculate that Sony would still acquire From Software. Earlier this year following Sony’s acquisition of Bungie and Microsoft’s massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard, analysts and insiders claimed that more, bigger acquisitions were still on the way.

PlayStation previously signed exclusivity deals with From Software on games like Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne and the VR game Deracine. However, it was never suggested that Sony would acquire the Japanese studio at any point. Content exclusivity will likely continue between the companies, but a studio acquisition is difficult to call right now.

In related news, Ubisoft recently announced that they’re looking to sell following controversies surrounding sexual misconduct at the company, as well as the pandemic causing the French company to struggle developing new games. It was reported that the next Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed and Ghost Recon games were, as a result, further away from release than expected.

Meanwhile, both Sony and Microsoft have firmly stated that they will continue pursuing acquisitions. Sony recently acquired Destiny and former Halo developer Bungie, while Microsoft acquired Call of Duty and Overwatch publisher Activision Blizzard.

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Source: PlayStation Lifestyle