Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke developer Shift Up has revealed new plans to increase its efforts in self-publishing in job postings first noticed by South Korean gaming website GameMeca.
This apparent decision to self-publish comes at interesting timing – ahead of the Stellar Blade sequel's planned release window sometime before 2027. Notably, Sony published the original horny action-apocalypse Stellar Blade in 2024, but the in-progress sequel Shift Up hopes will be an "even greater success than the original" does not have a publisher attached to it yet.
Instead of spending time looking for a publisher, Shift Up is publicly recruiting for a number of jobs across multiple departments – including PR and, according to Google Translate, designers for the Stellar Blade sequel. As part of its search, it's telling candidates in descriptions translated by Automaton that it's "preparing for a new leap forward in the global market."
"Beyond the worldwide success of Goddess of Victory: NIKKE and Stellar Blade," the company continues. "We aim to expand our self-publishing capabilities to support internally developed titles across consoles and PC." Shift Up last self-published the popular Korean visual novel The Reason Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion in 2021 – but its stuffed coffers now likely allow for even more, and even bigger, projects. Stellar Blade's PC launch alone sold one million copies in three days on the market, but even before that, Shift Up was giving its employees free PS5 Pros for a job well done on the game.
In a statement to GameMeca, also translated by Automaton, a Shift Up spokesperson explains that the company is indeed trying to capitalize on its recent global growth, and it aims to support its own titles long-term. That said, Shift Up's upcoming, self-described "EASTERN Fantasy" game Project Spirits is getting published by Tencent. Its characters also have physiologically improbable boobs.
