Shift Up, the developer behind the currently PlayStation 5 exclusive Stellar Blade, has given every one of their 311 staff members a cash bonus of $5 million won, roughly $3,400 in US dollars. In addition, they also gifted all staff with a PlayStation 5 Pro console. As spotted by VGC, South Korean publication Naver reported that this large sum of Bonuses and gifts was intended to encourage the staff as the company moves forward.
Shift Up has a 2024 that easily justifies this amount, however. Sony Interactive Entertainment published the title Stellar Blade early last year exclusively for the PlayStation 5, managing to hit the 1 million units sold mark in 2 months. While the studio was known up to this point for the mobile title Goddess of Victory: Nikke, as well as others, Stellar Blade serves as the studio’s first triple-A single-player release.
On our end at Pixelbyte, we gave the title an 8.0, calling it an imperfect but great first foray for the studio into that space. In my review, I stated, “With incentives like a massive collection of outfits to collect and some side quests built on the world even more, Stellar Blade delivers on its key promises with gusto and doesn’t leave you disappointed.”
In July of 2024 Shift Up raised 435 billion won, around $320 million, on its first day of open trade after an initial public offering. That, according to a report by Bloomberg, was the largest opening for gaming in the country since Krafton, the maker of PUBG, opened in 2021 and raised $3.8 billion from its IPO.
In a recent financial report, Shift Up stated following the launch of Stellar Blade, the title had seen its “sales continued at a stabilized level,” although an updated sales figure was not offered at the time. Revenue directly related to the game, however, was provided, with 25.8 billion won ($18.5 million) being made during the title’s April to June launch period, and 22.5 billion won ($16.1 million) being made during the studio’s third quarter between July and September. That is a total of 48.4 billion won (or $34.6 million) made by September, with fourth-quarter sales still remaining to be seen. In context their Mobile Live-service title Goddess of Victory: Nikki made a higher profit of approximately $51.9 Million in those same two periods.
Players can expect a lot more coming from Shift Up in the future as well. Stellar Blade has been confirmed to be coming to Steam, most likely this year. Pointing to the success of Black Myth: Wukong on the platform, Shift Up expects to have a bigger launch there than it had on PlayStation 5. Additionally, the studio has announced a new title, codenamed Project Witches, which is planned to be released in 2027. It is slated to have a multiplatform release rather than release exclusively like Stellar Blade.
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