UPDATE 15/02/24: Sony has insisted Rise of the Ronin was never intended for release in South Korea.
In a statement to IGN, the company once again confirmed the Team Ninja game will not be released in South Korea, refuting claims it has been cancelled.
“Rise of the Ronin for PlayStation 5 was never officially announced for release in Korea,” said a spokesperson for Sony. “We can confirm that the title is not going to be sold or published in South Korea in any form, physical or digital.”
As reported below, the game was pulled from the Korean PlayStation Store and all promotional material removed from the local YouTube channel – there’s now no Rise of the Ronin video from the recent State of Play, for instance.
ORIGINAL STORY 13/02/24: Team Ninja’s ambitious next game, Rise of the Ronin, will not be released in South Korea.
The news was covered by several Korean outlets yesterday, after the game was pulled from the Korean PlayStation Store and all promotional material except for the trailer was removed from PlayStation’s Korean YouTube channel.
As reported on Korean community site Ruliweb, Sony Interactive Entertainment Korea has released a statement confirming Rise of Ronin won’t be released in Korea physically or digitally.
Sony didn’t give a reason as to why it had cancelled the game’s Korean release, but it’s thought to be related to comments made by game director Fumuhiko Yasuda in a behind the scenes video on Rise of the Ronin uploaded by PlayStation.