March's Most Exciting PS5 Game Is Skipping One Country Entirely

screenrant.com:

is one of the biggest upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusives, but the game is going to be skipping one major market completely. Developed by Team Ninja, the studio behind action hits like, , and, successor to the latter is an open-world historical adventure taking place during a time of major upheaval in 19th century Japan. This setting could prove interesting to many potential fans, but it also treads on some ground that seems like a likely cause for the major exception in its worldwide release.

Wrangling complex history and politics in the scope of a video game can often be a challenge, as accuracy and nuance isn't always as much of a priority as entertainment value. The disclaimer at the front of games is a particularly famous example of this, establishing that no offense is intended by the pulpy elements that decorate its depictions of diverse cultures and religions. Although doesn't seem to have as much of an emphasis on remixing history, it does touch on some elements that could be very sensitive if handled poorly.

Although gaming is a big industry in South Korea, a release isn't going to happen in the region, a decision that Sony confirmed in response to an inquiry from . Reportedly, this might be a decision that was made due to controversy rather than the initial release plan, although there's no hard confirmation of this perspective. Sony's official stance on the matter is that the game ," which doesn't directly address whether the company had plans for release internally.

A behind-the-scenes video about, available on the PlayStation Japan YouTube channel, offers some inadvertent insight into one possible explanation for the game's lack of a planned release in South Korea. In the video, game director Fumuhiko Yasuda speaks briefly about the historical figure Yoshida Shōin, who he compares to Socrates in the influence that his teachings had on a number of acolytes.

To South Koreans, however, Yoshida Shōin's influence is more likely to be viewed in a significantly