Stellar Blade | Franchise Expansion

[Moonface]

So I've got a stream on in the background with someone playing this game, and I don't know if it's intended or not but the same background track has been playing on loop since the area you get into after the logo pop. I know you can change songs at the jukebox in rest areas but if whatever you pick is the only song that plays during gameplay until you change it again that's gonna make me just mute the soundtrack entirely. Just hearing the one track on repeat for the last hour in the stream has already made me never want to hear it again.

[Moonface]

Stellar Blade | May 24 Patch Details
A new patch has dropped for Stellar Blade which adds the following content:

• Boss Challenge
  
• New Nano Suits
  
• QoL Improvements
  

The full details can be read on the respective PlayStation Blog post.

Furthermore, the developers recently said that they are considering a PC port of the game following its successful sales. Platforms other than PS5 were originally intended for the game until Sony provided support to the developers that made the game become a console exclusive.

[Moonface]

I believe this is official because the developers did do a presentation or something today confirming a roadmap for this game, and although there are no dates on most of it I assume the release windows can be guessed based on where each item rests against the dated top row. 

I can't make out whether there's any IP being shown in the crossover image or not, nor do I know if the costume in the third box is new or just one already in-game being used as a placeholder image.

[Dragon Lord]

I was pleasantly surprised by how well the PC version of the game runs. Even my old 3080 is able to run it decently well without any major stuttering or lag. They did a great job optimizing it and the game looks absolute gorgeous on PC. I definitely wish I had a better GPU so I could play at 4K/120+ FPS, but unfortunately that's out of my reach for now, haha.

Need to get back to the game and finish it on PC... also need to finish the platinum on PS5 that I've been putting off for far too long.

[Moonface]

Stellar Blade Franchise to Expand
Shift Up have announced in a recent financial report that it plans to expand Stellar Blade as a franchise with "various derivative works". The report is entirely in Korean, but here's a rough translation of the relevant part pertaining to this:

Through this, [Stellar Blade] was able to effectively secure a new user base and further strengthen its position as a global AAA franchise IP. We plan to develop various derivative works to expand the [Stellar Blade] IP so that [Stellar Blade] can establish itself as a well-made IP.

Given the success of the game, especially when it came to PC, it isn't probably too surprising. Furthermore, Shift Up had announced back in May that Stellar Blade will be getting a sequel as part of an investor presentation.

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I'm not surprised Shift Up are gonna do more with this franchise, although I wasn't aware until now that a sequel had been greenlit. Last I heard was my previous post in June 2024 where a sequel was under review.

[Dragon Lord]

I'm really excited to see what they do with the franchise, especially how they plan to refine the combat even more in the sequel. The combat in SB is awesome and I believe they have the skills to make it even better. I love seeing a company like Shift Up make their big bucks off of a gacha game and then turning around and making that into a super solid AA/AAA game. Unlike certain other companies that make a lot of money off of a gacha game and then announce they'll be making like 12 more gacha games.

[Moonface]

I love seeing a company like Shift Up make their big bucks off of a gacha game and then turning around and making that into a super solid AA/AAA game. Unlike certain other companies that make a lot of money off of a gacha game and then announce they'll be making like 12 more gacha games.

Hopefully cases like this one will persuade other developers to consider stepping outside the gacha space and trying other things; although, I do wonder how many of those attempts would be unique from each other and not just chasing the current successful trend/genre. For example, I feel like the number of souls-likes has gone up a lot as developers have seen games like this one, Lies of P, Wukong, etc. get success as new IP's in the genre to the point I've become tired of seeing new ones get announced. I'm sure it'll pass just like other trends have before though.

On the second point I quoted, I'm curious which companies you'd like to see attempt a game outside of the gacha space that have yet to do so @Dragon Lord?