An Update On ‘Stellar Blade 2' After Its PC Success
Stellar Blade
Stellar Blade recently topped 3 million sales since release, and 1 million sales in the three days after it launched on PC, putting up nearly 200,000 concurrents, and besting PlayStation's previous PC-porting records.
Even before the PC release, we already knew that because Stellar Blade was a hit, it would be getting a sequel. Now, SHIFTUP is starting to talk about it, despite the fact that it will likely be at least until 2027 until we see it.
Asked by Korean outlet ThisisGame about its 'somewhat disappointing' Stellar Blade narrative, SHIFTUP CEO Kim Hyung-tae talked about what happened with the game and what will change for the sequel in that area.
The issue was that the gameplay itself was finished relatively early, but they were playing catch-up with narrative elements like cutscenes. The original plan was more 'detailed settings,' which would include things like explanations of why characters in the story change outfits and boosted stories outside the main narrative, but ultimately those were reduced in order to finish the game.
Apparently, they may have even considered adding some of those scrapped scenes after launch, but they thought it would derail the existing story. However, Kim Hyung-tae says that is top of mind and a priority for the sequel: 'I think we will be able to present it with a sufficiently rich narrative," he says.
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Stellar Blade
The idea that the Stellar Blade sequel will be out in 2027 is up in the air, it seems:
'To be honest, we've been fully committed to releasing the PC version following the PS version, so now is the time to do proper R&D. It would be great if it came out in 2027, but there are only three years left, so I can only say that we'll do our best. However, I can guarantee that we'll present a great work.'
He was also asked about the idea of merging worlds like Stellar Blade, Nikke and the upcoming Project Spirit, but he says 'for the sake of the independence of the IPs' there are no plans to do that, short of the kinds of fun, one-off collaborations we've already seen, Nikke being the most recent.
If all of SHIFTUP's efforts have been channeled into the PC version right now, and work will only be just getting starting on Stellar Blade 2, it does seem likely that 2027 may not be possible, simply given the production schedule of AAA games, and the likelihood of attempting to make the sequel bigger. Whenever it comes, that will be launching on the next console generation, though likely not just on PlayStation like we just saw. A PS6, Steam and Xbox Whatever release would be more likely. I wouldn't expect too many more sequel updates soon, and right now, SHIFTUP can start spooling it up after this big PC launch.
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