Sony Refutes Rise of the Ronin Korean Cancellation Claims, Says It Was Never Announced | Push Square
20.02.2024 - 00:39
/ pushsquare.com
/ Says It
/ Sony
Yesterday, we brought you word of a brewing controversy surrounding the upcoming PS5 action game Rise of the Ronin after director Fumuhiko Yasuda made some comments alluding to a controversial 19th-century Japanese philosopher. It was supposed that these comments were why Sony confirmed the game would not be released in Korea, but now Sony says it never planned on selling the game in one of the world's most lucrative markets in the first place.
In a statement to IGN, Sony pushed back on the various reports that popped up in response to the news, stating explicitly: «Rise of the Ronin for PlayStation 5 was never officially announced for release in Korea. We can confirm that the title is not going to be sold or published in South Korea in any form, physical or digital.»
Doing deeper digging, IGN contests initial reporting from Western outlets, suggesting that if a South Korean version of the game was planned, Sony hasn't mentioned it for quite some time. They point to the Indonesian PlayStation Store's game page, which lists Korean as a supported language, and to the South Korean PlayStation Blog, which lists the game in its 2022 State of Play roundup. For the record, South Korea is among the most significant video game-consuming markets in the world, ranked at #4 in 2021, accounting for almost 10% of global consumption.
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What do you think, do you believe the party line? Was releasing Rise of the Ronin in Korea never part of the plan, or did plans change along the way? Let us know in the comments section below.
Khayl Adam is the second best video game journalist Australia has ever produced, and his ambitions of world domination have (thus far) been curbed by the twin siren songs of strategy games and CRPGs. He has always felt an affinity for the noble dachshund, the best kind of dog.
I can't believe that NK is more liberal than SK.
Japanese pettiness at its best lol
@Triumph741 if you had a copy of this game in North Korea you would be put in jail as the best case scenario. Worst case: they shoot you.
I’m not sure why you are trying to cast doubt by saying the Korean market is the 4th largest in the world; we all know that this is pretty much exclusively due to live service and mobile games, not games like Ronin.
I’m sure they would have expected to release there, but if they didn’t officially announce it then it isn’t technically a cancellation I guess.
Bit of a nothing story this.
@thefourfoldroot1 There was 1.1M PS4s sold in South Korea as of 2019 so if PS5 is consistent with that it would roughly about 1% of the PS5 Market
There is absolutely no way they didn’t plan to release this game in South Korea unless it was a conscious decision