Stellar Blade Sells A Million, Developers Looking Into PC Port
Shift Up says it can't comment further due to a deal with PlayStation.
Stellar Blade, the South Korean-developed action PlayStation exclusive from earlier this year, has sold one million copies globally as of June. Now, developer Shift Up says it’s looking to bring the experience to PC gamers.
If the history of Stellar Blade’s publisher is any indication, the action game’s PC debut seems inevitable. PlayStation’s library of exclusives, including The Last Of Us, Uncharted 4, and Ghost Of Tsushima, has been slowly migrating to PC over the last five years. PlayStation’s biggest win of 2024 so far, Helldivers 2, owes its record-breaking success to launching simultaneously across console and PC.
Further cementing the inevitability is PlayStation’s new leadership. Both of the gaming brand’s CEO’s, Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst, have been on the record saying they want to see more of PlayStation’s biggest titles debut outside of their console ecosystem. They see PC ports as a way of stirring interest in their franchises, their sequels, and even hardware.
During Shift Up’s IPO press conference on Tuesday, company chief financial officer Jaewoo Ahn said the developer is reviewing a PC port because the company believes it “would be a great way to monetize the IP once again.”
Stellar Blade has been a big success for Shift Up and PlayStation, topping sales charts in the U.S. and UK since its April release.
“We ask for your understanding that we cannot tell you the exact timing or whether or not [the game will come to PC] because we have a contractual relationship,” Ahn elaborated, according to South Korea publication GameMeca.
The last time the developer spoke on the possibility of a PC port was last month, when Ahn revealed that it was under consideration alongside a sequel. With Stellar Blade becoming a sales success and a critical darling since its release, the developer is looking at ways to capitalize on their impressive console debut.
Stellar Blade balances its tough but satisfying combat with a predictable but thought-provoking story.
Ahn called the game’s success a “smooth” first step for Stellar Blade as a franchise but added that there was great potential in widening its audience from the limited number of players who own a PlayStation 5.
“The number of PS5 distributions and activation levels were not as high as that of PS4. And recently, the main consumer of AAA games has shifted to PCs,” Ahn explained. “If we release the PC version, we expect the value of the IP to increase once more.”
Ahn’s words echo a similar sentiment being recognized by executives industry-wide. The days of the console exclusive are dwindling steadily, as the ballooning cost of developing AAA games makes it hard to justify limiting potential sales in an effort to edge out console sales of the competition. It’s why Xbox has been testing the waters of bringing some of its exclusives like Sea Of Thieves and Pentiment to PlayStation, and why Sony is releasing Lego Horizon Adventures to Nintendo Switch.
Developer Shift Up has already shared interest in doing a Stellar Blade sequel.
In Stellar Blade’s case, having their second game published by such a distinguished entity in the games industry speaks to the talent of the studio. However, the profit that could have been made had the game been readily available for players outside of the 59 million or so who bought into the PlayStation ecosystem is undeniable.
Inverse gave Stellar Blade an 8/10, praising its predictable but solid story “about sacrifice interwoven with religious themes,” as well as the game’s “challenging combat and stylish graphics.”
