Yesterday’s announcement of Sony Interactive Entertainment joining forces with NCSoft, as well as news from Stellar Blade studio Shift Up, has brought to light an earlier report regarding Korean PS5 exclusives. Back in July, we shared a report that claimed Sony was actively pursuing partnerships in the country, and recent announcements have now corroborated this.
Stellar Blade expected to be the first of many Korean PS5 exclusives
The report we shared earlier this year came from MTN Korea, which said that Sony was in talks to invest in the following developers:
- Pearl Abyss, developer of PS4 and PS5 action role-playing game, Crimson Desert
- NCSoft
- Com2uS, developer of mobile game Summoners War
- Neowiz Games, publisher of PS4 and PS5 soulslike, Lies of P.
NCSoft is now a lock, and Sony has already turned Shift Up’s Stellar Blade — originally a multiplatform game — into a PS5 exclusive by way of a publishing agreement. Since the aforementioned report from MTN, Shift Up has reportedly signed on to become a second-party studio for Sony. Considering this, it looks like MTN’s report was correct, and Sony will announce more Korean partnerships in the near future.
There’s speculation that Sony may fully acquire a Korean company, but there’s currently no indication of that.
