Stellar Blade

SHIFT UP

Shift Up, developer of Stellar Blade, has just made a big announcement that it will also be the publisher for its sequel, Stellar Blade 2.

That is a change from the first game, where Stellar Blade was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, which made it a PlayStation console exclusive and delayed a PC release (a PC release that blew previous Sony first-party games out of the water).

This was rumored to be the way forward in the past, but now it’s official, and Shift Up’s announcement about this was interestingly worded, to say the least. Here’s what it said in its Q1 earnings presentation:

“Notably, starting with this next title, Shift Up will transition to a first-party service model. This will allow us to lead marketing strategies that fully reflect the distinctive identity of the Stellar Blade IP, and we expect to communicate the unique appeal of its universe to players more directly and effectively.”

That’s certainly curious that they would highlight the ability to do their own marketing campaign themselves to “fully reflect the distinctive identity of Stellar Blade’.” I went back and watched some past trailers. They were fine, well-received by players, and clearly led to big sales, so I’m sort of led to the conclusion that perhaps they wanted to lean more heavily into Eve’s sex appeal, a much-lauded aspect of the game among many players. I suppose they’re not showing her…most revealing outfits? Or this means something else entirely, I’m not sure. It’s certainly unusual that this specifically was highlighted, however.

It was briefly mentioned here that the goal was to expand past PlayStation and that delayed PC release. There’s no reason to think this wouldn’t launch on PS6(?), Xbox and PC simultaneously. There have been rumors for a while now that Shift Up has been working on a Switch 2 port of Stellar Blade, but that hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps the sequel could launch there.

Stellar Blade was a breakout hit in 2024, satisfying critics with an 81 metascore and fans with a very high 9.1/10 on the site. Shift Up, in its first AAA outing, sold 6.1 million copies of the game by last count, a huge result for the developer, which led to an obvious greenlight for a sequel. Shift Up has also kept updating Stellar Blade with new modes, new outfits and new crossovers since its release.

We do not have a timeframe on when we might see Stellar Blade 2, but 2028 seems like a somewhat safe bet. Maybe the end of 2027 if we’re lucky.

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