Stellar Blade director vows to buck industry advice for single-player games as “what our industry needs more than anything is variety”

Hyung-Tae Kim speaks on advice to chase higher profits

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Stellar Blade’s director says the games industry needs more diversity in its releases, including console titles and single-player games with endings that don’t go on forever.

Speaking toRuliwebin a new interview (thanks,Genki), Stellar Blade director and Shift Up studio CEO Hyung-Tae Kim speaks about the challenges of game development, including rising costs. The director says that he gets a lot of advice to make games with higher operating margins - in other words, games that cost less but stand a better chance of making an increased amount of money.

“I think what our industry needs more than anything is diversity. Console titles, single-player games with endings, are very important in their own right,” Kim adds (as translated byGoogleand DeepL). “It’s healthier for the market to continue to make these games and for them to co-exist with other genres and platforms, which is why Shift Up will continue to take on the console challenge,” the director continues.

Furthermore, Kim believes there’s a “strong desire” for audiences to play a game that has a definitive ending - a game that isn’t a live-service title and isn’t supported with endless updates after launch. While Kim hasn’t entirely shot down the possibility of DLC for Stellar Blade in the past, he has said thatShift Up won’t charge for Stellar Blade additions like costumes and a New Game Plus mode.

In fact, we already knowShift Up’s next game will be a “cross-platform next-gen” title. The Stellar Blade developer does have a history of working on multi-platform titles - Goddess of Victory: Nikke launched across mobile and PC platforms, for example - but it’s interesting to note that after Stellar Blade’sPS5exclusivity, Shift Up won’t continue on the same course.

Even in demo form, PS5 action-RPG Stellar Blade draws high praise in tech analysis for excellent 60 FPS performance and 4K resolution modes.

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Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

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