Sony has reportedly canceled plans to release Rise of the Ronin in South Korea.
Team Ninja’s upcoming PlayStation-exclusive title, Rise of the Ronin, will not be released in South Korea. Sony has reportedly decided to pull the game from the Korean PlayStation Store and removed all the promotional material related to the game on February 12, 2024.
Rise of the Ronin was announced on September 13, 2022, at PlayStation’s State of Play live stream. At the Game Awards 2023, Sony announced the game will be released on March 22, 2024. The gameplay of Rise of the Ronin was showcased at 2024’s first State of Play livestream hosted by PlayStation.
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Sony Canceled Rise of the Ronin’s Release in South Korea
The news was first reported by the Korean community site Ruliweb, which said that Sony Interactive Entertainment officially announced that the open-world action-adventure game ‘Rise of Ronin’ will not be officially released in Korea. Although the specific reason was not explained, Sony Interactive Entertainment Korea has discontinued the game, and will not be released in any form, including physical or digital download.
Ruliweb contacted Sony Computer Entertainment Korea but did not respond to the media outlet. Sony did not give any official announcement on why the game has been canceled in South Korea. However, it’s speculated to be related to the recent comments made by game director Fumuhiko Yasuda in a behind-the-scenes video on Rise of the Ronin uploaded by PlayStation.
In the video, Yasuda is seen visiting the city of Hagi and the Shoka Sonjuku School, founded by a scholar named Yoshida Shōin and compared to Socrates. This is a topic of controversy because Shōin promoted the ‘Jeonghan Theory,’ which helped Japan increase its military power and win the first Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War.
Yoshida Shōin’s theory helped increase Japan’s national power and helped them conquer Korean lands, which led them to occupy Korea from 1910 to 1945. Because of this, Shōin is a controversial figure in South Korea, and Fumuhiko Yasuda complimenting the scholar in the video has drawn backlash from the Korean gaming community.
Because of the backlash, SIE Korea canceled the Rise of the Ronin launch in South Korea, and the game is now no longer available to pre-purchase on South Korean accounts on the PlayStation Store.
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