PlayStation Studio tech wizards working on Rise of the Ronin for PS5

A PlayStation Studio that is often unheard of is helping Team Ninja put State of Play star Rise of the Ronin together. The PS5 exclusive title is coming in 2024 and it looks like XDEV is on the case for the Nioh team.

Rise of the Ronin was no doubt a star of the recent Sony PlayStation State of Play showcase. The action-RPG takes place in industrial Japan, but it looks like part of the workforce in the engine room of the PS5-only game will be underrated tech wizards XDEV: a PlayStation Studio that often goes underrated despite work on Returnal and Detroit Become Human.

Rise of the Ronin is coming to PlayStation thanks to some helping hats

PlayStation Studio XDEV help the development of PS5 exclusive Rise of the Ronin

As revealed by the senior producer at XDEV, Jason Stewart. The producer tweeted that he was "Privileged to work on an exciting title as Rise of the Ronin with Yasuda-san of Team Ninja Studio (Masaaki Yamagiwa) and our XDEV JP team." Team Ninja is the team behind the exciting project, with Wo Long Fallen Dynasty set to release in 2023 before Rise of the Ronin.

An aspect of this story that has taken people by surprise is the mention of an XDEV Japanese team. XDEV stands for 'external developer' and it helps work on projects that are being developed in a second-party capacity (an exclusive game by a non-PlayStation Studios team). In the past, the newly Liverpool-based European team has helped with Housemarque's Returnal, Sumo Digital's Sackboy A Big Adventure, and Quantic Dream's Detroit Become Human.

XDEV is working away on something fun!

Now, though, it looks like there is another team settled in Japan or that there is an embedded Japanese team in XDEV's Liverpool office. This is a big change from the past when Japan Studio took care of business in the Japanese territory before it was dissolved into the Astro's Playroom developer Team Asobi. By the time it was set to close, by all accounts Japan Studio had become totally unwieldy with so many projects and teams. Now it looks like there is a quiet XDEV Japan branch helping PlayStation associated developers on projects.

A super intresting factoid about one of the most under-the-radar PlayStation Studios, then! Our Ape Escape review would have made Studio Japan proud, we feel, so do check that out. Anyway, what do you think of the news? Let us know in the comments!

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Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about PS5 exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favorite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.