Stellar Blade Dev Shift Up Once Had Only 3 Months of Cash Left

Shift Up CEO Hyung-Tae Kim reveals the studio nearly ran out of money while making Stellar Blade, surviving thanks to Nikke and a late Sony publishing deal.

Can you imagine your favorite game almost never existing? That's the reality for Stellar Blade. Developer Shift Up once had just three months of runway left while making the game, according to CEO Hyung-Tae Kim.

Speaking to Inven (translated by Automaton), Kim explained that investors and publishers saw the project as too risky. Several major, unnamed publishers turned the game down. Some even suggested that if the team pivoted to something else, they'd be more interested. "While we were developing Stellar Blade, there was a time when the company was in a situation where we could only pay salaries for about three months," Kim said. The exact timing is murky, but it seems to have been around 2020 to 2021, when the game was still known as Project Eve and years from release.

So how did Shift Up survive? Enter Goddess of Victory: Nikke, the free-to-play gacha RPG that launched in 2022 and brought in tens of millions of dollars soon after. That influx of cash kept the lights on and gave the team breathing room. But the real turning point came when Shuhei Yoshida, former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios and head of PlayStation Indie, got his hands on a playable build. He offered a publishing deal, and the rest is history.

Fast forward to now: Stellar Blade is a hit, and Kim was even given a presidential commendation in December 2025 for his contributions to the South Korean games industry. He credits the company's success squarely to the players who enjoy its games. And he's right—it's those communities that ultimately keep studios alive.

Looking ahead, Stellar Blade's Switch 2 port is on the way, and Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is in development. There's also at least one other untitled project in the works. Thankfully, the team now has a lot longer than three months to get it done.

What do you think about this near-miss story? Are you glad Shift Up pulled through? Let us know in the comments!