Rise of the Ronin needs to sell 5 million copies to meet expectations

Rise of the Ronin is coming out later this week and fans are excited to try out the latest PlayStation exclusive. Publisher Koei Tecmo has high expectations for this RPG, maybe even too high, as the company hopes to sell 5 million copies to meet expectations.

A post from the Koei Tecmo website (via PlayStation Lifestyle) showed the publisher’s short and long-term goals, with one of them being a new IP that sells 5 million copies. While the post doesn’t clarify if this is Koei’s PS5 exclusive, it is the company’s newest IP thus far and the game looks like it has another big budget.

Considering how game development continues to cost more, it’s not a huge surprise to know that Rise of the Ronin has ridiculously high sales expectations. Even though hitting 1 million sales is a big deal, the amount of money put into triple-A games like this does mean they need to hit higher projections.

Only time will tell if this PlayStation exclusive does meet Koei Tecmo’s expectations, though we hope the company isn’t setting itself up for failure. PlayStation exclusives don’t have that shine like they used to, but many fans still see value in them, so reaching 5 million in sales might be possible.

Not helping is the fact that Rise of the Ronin has been banned from South Korea, as the game’s director made some controversial comments about the country’s history with Japan. While Korea isn’t gaming’s biggest market, that’s still a whole country you’re losing sales to and that’s a heavy blow.

It will be interesting to see how the PS5 exclusive does, given how similar it is to other action RPGs and Souls-like titles. The game’s period setting, satisfying combat, and traversal options do show plenty of quality, which could lead to high sales. We’re gonna have to wait and see.

Rise of the Ronin is coming to PlayStation 5 on March 22.