The latest PS5 exclusive from Sony and Koei Tecmo hasn’t done as well as expected. Rise of the Ronin released last month to some rather mixed reviews and these scores have greatly affected sales of the game. According to Koei Tecmo, Rise of the Ronin, and a few other titles from the studio are going to miss the intended target by $70 million.
The latest financial revision from Koei Tecmo says that sales projections have dropped by 11% and operating income by 28% at the studio. While it is still quite early to blame Rise of the Ronin for these losses, the studio says the sales for “recent game launches” have been lower than initially expected.
Koei Tecmo had high expectations for Rise of the Ronin before its launch. The studio was hoping to sell at least 5 million copies of the game within its first year on the market. That has since changed.
During its launch weeks, Rise of the Ronin failed to enter the top 10 UK boxed sales which was already a warning sign. The game didn’t even break into the top 20.
Koei Tecmo hasn’t revealed any exact sales figures for Rise of the Ronin yet. However, the studio has recently had a bad run of games. Last year, Wu Long: Fallen Dynasty launched across all platforms and on day one on Xbox Game Pass. The game wasn’t as well-received as Nioh but launched with an 80 Metacritic score. Rise of the Ronin is currently sitting on a 76.
Rise of the Ronin was then hyped up as the next big game from Koei Tecmo but it was sadly met with mediocre review scores. I reviewed the game myself and while the combat was enjoyable, the game’s sandbox open-world quest design felt repetitive.
Source: Investor Note
