Summary
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The developer of Stellar Blade Shift Up has just gifted their entire staff with a PS5 Pro.
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A little more than 300 employees of the studio also received a cash prize.
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This comes after Stellar Blade, the studio's first console game, launched to great success in 2024.
Shift Up, the studio behind Stellar Blade, says it started the new year by giving all of its employees a bonus. This includes PlayStation 5 Pros for all of its employees, as well as a cash bonus totaling one million yen (about $32,000).
This follows Shift Up's huge success in 2023 with the release of Stellar Blade, a PS5 exclusive. It was the studio's first console game release and was met with mostly positive reviews, strong sales, and a pair of nominations at The Game Awards.
Stellar Blade Devs Gifts PS5 Pros
Shift Up enters the new year with a bonus for all its employees
As spotted by VGC, South Korean news agency Naver reported the bonus earlier today. The bonus appeared as part of the studio's “Shift Up Rise Up” ceremony held for its employees. According to the outlet, the last employee count at Shift Up was 311 — so that's a lot of PS5 Pros, with most, if not all, employees getting one.
The gift really makes a lot of sense – Stellar Blade is one of the games that has been optimized for the PS5 Pro so far.
A Shift Up spokesperson commented on the bonuses, saying, “Perks and bonuses are designed to encourage talent.”
This is quite a departure from the usual stories we hear from the industry, where even the success of a game can lead to layoffs or even the closure of a studio altogether. We've seen this time and time again throughout 2024, with industry giants like Sony and Microsoft constantly laying off developers at their various studios.
Stellar Blade is currently only available on PS5, though a PC port is coming at some point this year. There's been no word on an Xbox port, so either the Sony deal is preventing it or the team doesn't want to deal with the Xbox Series S as other developers are struggling to get their games out there now.
Stellar Blade is an action game by Shift Up, originally introduced as Project Eve. It follows the aforementioned Eve as she battles the alien invaders of Naytib in an attempt to reclaim Earth for humanity.
