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.
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.
[source ign.com]
Comments 13
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 to create a game that would piss off South Korea.
You cannot kill that which is already dead
@Triumph741 I assume you understand the colonial history there. 👍
It’s highly likely Fumuhiko didn’t even know about the extent of events and controversial stances from past history, as it had been a notable thing before with extent and parts of either Japan academics/history class and/or whatever passing down or not of past which had left out/excluded parts of history that were shady ie with the past corrupt government regimes/officials and the military they had under their order and control.
The stuff Japan did to Korea is horrific. It's understandable they'd be sensitive to something like this.
And a section of Korean gamers have the twitchiest trigger fingers in the world at any controversy. There have been much much much less real issues than this which have got people fired and games censored
Cool make it happen.everyone needs to play rise of the ronin.word up son
@ChrisDeku hard disagree. Best case they shoot and kill you. Worst case, you get tortured by the supreme never poops leader.
Seems totally believable to me, probably in a more, “Let’s test the waters for a potential release with all likelihood pointing to not” kind of way. It’s much more believable to me that the director’s comments are less the direct cause of this all and more one shining example of precisely why Sony would choose not to release the game in Korea in the first place.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...