Summary
Shift Up, the studio behindStellar Blade, says it has started the new year by giving all of its workers a bonus. This includesPlayStation 5 Prosfor all of its employees, alongside a monetary bonus totalling one million yen (around $32,000).
This comes after Shift Up saw great success in 2023 with the release of Stellar Blade, exclusively onPS5. It was the first console game release for the studio and was met withlargely positive reviews, strong sales, and a couple of nominations at The Game Awards.
Stellar Blade Devs Gifted PS5 Pros
Shift Up enters the new year with a bonus for all of its employees
As spotted byVGC, South Korean news outletNaverreported on this bonus earlier today. The bonus came as part of the studio’s “Shift Up Rise Up” ceremony, held for its staff. As the outlet reports, the last employee count at Shift Up was 311 - so that’s a lot of PS5 Pros if most, if not all, employees were getting one.
The gift does make a lot of sense - Stellar Blade is one of the games that has been optimised for PS5 Pro so far.
A representative from Shift Up commented on the bonuses, saying, “The plus and bonus payments are for the purpose of encouraging talent”.
It makes a nice change from the usual stories we hear from the industry, in which even a game’s success can lead to layoffs or even full studio closures. We saw this time and time again throughout 2024, with industry giants like Sony and Microsoft continuously laying off developers across their various studios.
Right now, Stellar Blade is only available on PS5, although aPC port is coming at some point this year. There’s been no word at all on an Xbox port, so either a deal with Sony is getting in the way of that, or the team doesn’t want to deal with the Xbox Series S, sinceother developers are struggling to get their games on there now.
Stellar Blade
WHERE TO PLAY
Stellar Blade is an action-driven game from Shift Up, originally revealed as Project Eve. It follows the aforementioned Eve as she battles the alien Naytiba invaders, in a bid to reclaim the Earth for humanity.
