Shift Up, the South Korean firm behind PlayStation 5 unique motion recreation Stellar Blade, has gifted all its workers a PlayStation 5 Pro in addition to a money bonus of 5 million received (round. $3,400).
As noticed by VGC, South Korean publication Naver reported that the eye-catching bonuses have been designed to encourage the corporate’s workers. As of the third quarter of final 12 months, 311 individuals have been working at Shift Up.
Shift Up had a formidable 2024. The Sony Interactive Leisure-published Stellar Blade launched completely on PS5 in April and offered a couple of million copies in two months. IGN’s Stellar Blade assessment returned a 7/10. We mentioned: “Stellar Blade is nice in all the most essential methods for an motion recreation, however uninteresting characters, a lackluster story, and a number of irritating parts of its RPG mechanics stop it from hovering together with one of the best of the style.” Since then, Shift Up has continued to replace the sport and even added crossover DLC with different online game franchises, most notably Nier: Automata.
In July, Shift Up raised 435 billion received (round. $320 million) in its first day of commerce after an preliminary public providing. In response to Bloomberg, that was the biggest within the nation for a gaming firm since 2021, when PUBG maker Krafton Inc. raised $3.8 billion from its personal IPO.
In a latest monetary report, Shift Up mentioned that after Stellar Blade’s launch “gross sales continued at a stabilized degree,” though it failed to supply an up to date gross sales determine. It did, nevertheless, present income immediately attributed to the sport: 25.8 billion received (approx. $18.5 million) throughout the quarter Stellar Blade got here out (April to June), and 22.5 billion received (approx. $16.1 million) throughout the firm’s third quarter (July to September). That’s a whole of 48.4 billion received (round $34.6 million) as of the tip of September. For context, Shift Up’s different recreation, cellular motion RPG Goddess of Victory: Nikke, makes more cash than Stellar Blade (approx. $51.9 million throughout the identical two quarters).
There’s extra to come back, too. The developer has confirmed plans to launch Stellar Blade on PC in 2025, and pointed to Black Fable: Wukong’s unimaginable success on Steam in predicting extra gross sales on PC than on PS5.
Shift Up has an unannounced multiplatform recreation codenamed Challenge Witches, which it plans to launch after 2027. Given the success of Stellar Blade, it appears possible Shift Up can also be contemplating a sequel.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.