{"id":33597,"date":"2024-07-08T13:03:34","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T04:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=33597"},"modified":"2024-07-08T13:12:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T04:12:15","slug":"konami-is-intent-on-region-locking-japanese-players-out-of-metal-gear-solid-rising-revengeance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/konami-is-intent-on-region-locking-japanese-players-out-of-metal-gear-solid-rising-revengeance\/","title":{"rendered":"Konami is intent on region locking Japanese players out of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance<\/strong> was made available on GOG on July 4. However, it may surprise players to learn that the 2013 Konami action game cannot be purchased digitally in Japan on neither Steam nor GOG.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE | Trailer [GOG]\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/95dD-WN0f28?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting off as a game made by Konami\u2019s in-house Kojima Productions and later developed by Platinum Games (of Bayonetta fame), Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance sees you take control of Raiden (who was first introduced as the <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/reviews\/why-did-metal-gear-solid-2-main-protagonist-raiden-get-so-much-hate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">surprise protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2<\/a>). Rising takes place four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, with Raiden sporting his cyborg ninja exoskeleton. With the high frequency katana as Raiden\u2019s main weapon, Rising\u2019s fast paced action gameplay focuses on agilely slicing your way through enemies &#8211; you can even enter a slowed down bullet time mode that allows you to better target enemy weaknesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" src=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240708-33597-001.jpg\" alt=\"Metal Gear Solid Rising Revengeance\" class=\"wp-image-33604\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240708-33597-001.jpg 900w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240708-33597-001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240708-33597-001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in 2013, the game was originally launched on PS3. Although it has been released on other platforms outside Japan (including Steam and Xbox 360), the only way to play it in its country of origin has been on PS3. However, there seemed to be hope for players in Japan when it was announced that Metal Gear  Rising: Revengeance would be available on GOG.com from July 4, 2024, complete with all the DLCs released for the original game. Although the GOG product page was briefly accessible to players in Japan upon its launch at 10 pm (JST), it was suddenly removed shortly after.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" src=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240708-33597-002.jpg\" alt=\"Metal Gear Solid Rising Revengeance Raiden\" class=\"wp-image-33605\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240708-33597-002.jpg 900w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240708-33597-002-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240708-33597-002-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On July 5, Konami Digital Entertainment released <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gamespark\/status\/1809152673171800074\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a statement to Game*Spark<\/a> confirming that the GOG version would not be sold in Japan. In other words, the GOG version has the same region restrictions as the Steam version. It seems that the brief period in which Metal Gear Rising was available on GOG to players in Japan was an oversight. Many Japanese <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Tai_417\/status\/1809265707173261796\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">commenters on X<\/a> were disappointed with this decision, with some calling for the abolishment of such region locking (as a sidenote, Japanese games being <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-publishers-habit-of-region-locking-games-in-japan-may-finally-be-changing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">unavailable in Japan on digital storefronts like Steam has become such a phenomenon that it even has its own slang term<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If players in Japan want to play Metal Gear Rising today, they need to track down a physical copy of the PS3 version. It seems strange that Konami should prevent a spinoff in one of its most popular series from being rereleased in its country of origin, but maybe they have other plans to make Metal Gear Rising available on modern platforms in the future (perhaps via Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 2?).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Depending on your region, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is now available on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gog.com\/game\/metal_gear_rising_revengeance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GOG.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on the <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/newsjp\/metalgear-rising-revengeance-20240704-300489\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original Japanese article<\/a> by Taijiro Yamanaka (original article\u2019s publication date: 2024-07-04 23:09 JST)&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The July 4 GOG.com release of the 2013 action game was promptly made unavailable in Japan moments after launch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":33603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-33597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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She has a soft spot for old-school Sierra adventure games and Final Fantasy VIII (yes, 8!). Can often be found hunting down weird forgotten games and finding out everything about them. Frequently muses about characters and lines from Metal Gear Solid and Disco Elysium. Aims to keep Automaton fresh and interesting with a wide variety of articles.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/verity-townsend\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33597"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33620,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33597\/revisions\/33620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}