The developers of Stellar Blade, Shift Up, may part ways with Sony as the company appears to be mass recruiting.
Stellar Blade developer, Shift Up, is taking significant steps towards becoming a global, multiplatform publisher following a wave of job listings on its platform, as reported by AUTOMATON, citing Korean news outlet GameMeca.
Since its inception, Shift Up has relied on third-party publishers. One of the studio’s biggest titles, 2021’s Stellar Blade, was released exclusively on the PlayStation 5 and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The developer is also working on an AAA urban sci-fi action RPG, codenamed Project Spirits (formerly Project Witches), which has been assigned to Tencent’s Level Infinite as its publisher.
However, the company is now making significant moves to strengthen its self-publishing capabilities, having begun publicly recruiting talent to support the initiative.
Shift Up advertises new job openings as it moves towards self-publishing
With numerous job openings listed on its website, Shift Up appears to be positioning itself to move away from third-party publishers including Sony and towards self-publishing its future titles. The vacancies range from Marketing Manager and PR Manager to Creative Lead, with the listings stating:
“Shift Up is preparing for a new leap forward in the global market, building on the worldwide success of Goddess of Victory: NIKKE and Stellar Blade. We aim to expand our self-publishing capabilities to support internally developed titles across consoles and PC,” as translated by AUTOMATON.
Stellar Blade is a sci-fi single-player action-adventure game in which players follow the protagonist, Eve, as she helps the remnants of humanity battle monstrous creatures known as the Naytibas in a bid to reclaim a post-apocalyptic Earth. The game was a commercial success and performed particularly well upon its PC release, selling over one million copies within three days.
The sequel is highly anticipated, and although little information has been revealed so far, Shift Up may choose to self-publish the next instalment. Greater independence could grant the studio increased creative freedom, free from the constraints of third-party publishing oversight influencing its development process.
While Wikipedia currently lists Sony as the publisher of the untitled sequel, it remains to be seen whether Shift Up will move away entirely or continue its involvement with Sony in some capacity.
