A few years ago, the financial state of the South Korean studio Shift Up was in dire straits—so much so that the team was close to going bankrupt. This was revealed by Shift Up's CEO, Kim Hyung-tae, at the Tokyo Game Show 2026 event.
Stellar Blade
- Kim recalls that Shift Up's troubles began shortly after the announcement of Stellar Blade in 2019, then known by its code name, Project Eve. According to him, the game did not attract interest from either the studio's existing partners or potential new ones—developers were even advised to abandon Stellar Blade and focus on something else.
- The company justified its position simply: at that time, Shift Up's portfolio only included the mobile gacha game Destiny Child, which had not achieved significant success. Investors and publishers doubted that the young studio could create a hit AAA single-player game for PC and consoles, considering that even giants in South Korea would struggle with such a task. It was believed that such projects almost inevitably led to losses.
- Kim was also unsure if Stellar Blade would succeed, but he decided to take the risk and see the project through to completion.
- At one point, the head of Shift Up claims, the studio was nearly out of money, with just enough to pay employees' salaries for three months after which the accounts would have been empty.
- The threat of bankruptcy was averted for Shift Up thanks to Sony and Tencent. The former agreed to publish Stellar Blade, while the latter supported the concurrent development of the mobile game Goddess of Victory: Nikke. It should be noted that Tencent later invested in the studio twice and now owns 34.66% of its shares—more than anyone else except Kim himself.
- In the end, the gamble paid off. Stellar Blade was released on PlayStation 5 in April 2024, on PC in June 2025, and is now preparing for its debut on the Nintendo Switch 2. Known data states that within three days after its PC release, total sales of the game exceeded 3 million copies.