Stellar Blade Director Is Now One of the Richest People in Korea

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Kim Hyung-tae's rise to billionaire-level riches is pretty damn impressive.

Having started out as a video game artist, Kim would go on to establish Shift Up, the development studio behind PS5 hit Stellar Blade — and now he's worth a not-so-small fortune.

According to Forbes, Kim is now counted amongst the 50 richest people in Korea, boasting a net worth in the region of $725 million.

Of course, much of Shift Up's financial success stems from its waifu-packed mobile title Goddess of Victory: Nikke — a game so popular that the developer could afford to branch out into the more hardcore, single-player action space with Stellar Blade.

Kim remains hands-on with his creations, though. With Stellar Blade, he's credited as director, co-producer, and co-designer, despite sitting at the very top of the company as chairman.

It'll be interesting to see what Shift Up does next. The studio's clearly in a strong position — it had a record-breaking 2024 — but it'll all depend on the direction that it wants to take. We know the developer's working on something right now, but there's been no clear indication of whether it's more in line with Nikke, or Stellar Blade.
 
Well deserved, it's one of the top best games of 2024 along with Space Marine 2 and Rebirth.

Sure the characters are hot but honestly that one just a big plus cause it's really a great combination of enemy design, music, gameplay, character design, and setting etc that made the game amazing.

It has since sold over 2 million copies which may not sound like a gigantic amount for a AAA but this isn't a big budget AAA, it's not even AAA but a AA game which is huge. Costing around 50 million which is several times lower than most AAA games. To scale it to a sold and budget ratio, a AA game like Stellar Blade selling over 2 million copies is like if FFXVI or Veilguard or AC selling over 10 to 12 million copies.

Regardless they have already announced way before the sales have exceeded expectation and a PC port and sequels were in the works months ago and have recently announced it again. From reddit

"Expectations are high for the performance of a two-way collaboration between two proprietary IPs in June. From the second quarter onward, information about the Stellar Blade sequel and Project Witches, currently in development, is likely to gradually become more visible as part of the IP expansion plan."

The PC port should do around 20k to 40k which doesn't seem a lot but would still be good for a AA game that is also a late launch game.

Can't wait for Stellar Blsde 2 which I'm guessing would be at 2027 or maybe even 2026 but I'm actually interested in the story and wanna see where things would go after the ending. 2027 should be the year where we'll see the sequels of the three best games of 2024 which are Space Marine 3, Stellar Blade 2, and FFVII Remake Part 3
 
Hawk The Slayer said:
Well deserved, it's one of the top best games of 2024 along with Space Marine 2 and Rebirth.

Sure the characters are hot but honestly that one just a big plus cause it's really a great combination of enemy design, music, gameplay, character design, and setting etc that made the game amazing.

It has since sold over 2 million copies which may not sound like a gigantic amount for a AAA but this isn't a big budget AAA, it's not even AAA but a AA game which is huge. Costing around 50 million which is several times lower than most AAA games. To scale it to a sold and budget ratio, a AA game like Stellar Blade selling over 2 million copies is like if FFXVI or Veilguard or AC selling over 10 to 12 million copies.

Regardless they have already announced way before the sales have exceeded expectation and a PC port and sequels were in the works months ago and have recently announced it again. From reddit

"Expectations are high for the performance of a two-way collaboration between two proprietary IPs in June. From the second quarter onward, information about the Stellar Blade sequel and Project Witches, currently in development, is likely to gradually become more visible as part of the IP expansion plan."

The PC port should do around 20k to 40k which doesn't seem a lot but would still be good for a AA game that is also a late launch game.

Can't wait for Stellar Blsde 2 which I'm guessing would be at 2027 or maybe even 2026 but I'm actually interested in the story and wanna see where things would go after the ending. 2027 should be the year where we'll see the sequels of the three best games of 2024 which are Space Marine 3, Stellar Blade 2, and FFVII Remake Part 3
Click to expand...
Lords of the fallen costed 66M sold for 2M and the game still isn't profitable 20 months after release with a game pass inclusion and -72% sales

Numbers are relative

Unknown Soldier said:
He's married to a beautiful Korean woman tho
Click to expand...
That's precisely the point
 
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Congrats to him and I'm looking forward to seeing what his team will develop next.

On a side note it is a little sad that a congratulatory thread is probably going to be filled with culture war posts.
 
March Climber said:
Congrats to him and I'm looking forward to seeing what his team will develop next.

On a side note it is a little sad that a congratulatory thread is probably going to be filled with culture war posts.
Click to expand...
First few posts, lmao.

Good on him and his team's success. I still haven't played Stellar Blade, but I will in due time!
 
Guesclin said:
Lords of the fallen costed 66M sold for 2M and the game still isn't profitable 20 months after release with a game pass inclusion and -72% sales

Numbers are relative


That's precisely the point
Click to expand...
I haven't looked into Lords of the Fallen but yeah if they somehow aren't successful at 2m than it's the big sales which wasn't the case for Stellar Blade as they have already announced the sales weren't just good but also exceeded expectation so most probably bought it at full price. Not even sure if it was ever even on sale yet. Anyway just glad it's doing very well and looking forward to the sequel which should be better now that they got the experience and things set up.
 
just arrived in the great desert...

very happy for kim hyung-tae, & everyone else at shift up. i've been having a great time hanging out in this wonderful game, which's loaded with feel-good, ps360 era vibes. congrats, & thanks!...
 
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All on the back of Nikke.

Once again, that's why everyone wants to make live service games. This one with a side serving of gacha.
 
I love Nikke and Stellar Blade, but I haven't spent a dime on Nikke. Everything is so goddamn expensive. The Nier Automata DLC for Stellar Blade cost less than a single outfit in Nikke.
 
Who would have guessed you can raise a fortune out of selling digital melons? Farmers around the globe have been leaving money on the table...
 
While brilliant people receive respect and wealth, like the director of Stellar Blade...

There are others whose clumsiness and insolence only bring ridicule, like Hermen Hulst and Concord.
 
kiphalfton said:
I bet. I've mostly lived in rural areas, and most women aren't that attractive.
Click to expand...
It could just be that Asia social pressure meant there is less obese women. Obviously there are down sides to this but it is one metric. I personally think Koreans take plastic surgery too lightly. I don't like tattoos, but I see unnecessary cosmetic surgery as the inverse of having tattoos. So it gets an ick out of me both ways.
 
kiphalfton said:
I bet. I've mostly lived in rural areas, and most women aren't that attractive.
Click to expand...
That's because by definition Asian women are not. Koreans living in big cities all have plastic surgery if they can worry it, same with men. What you see on TV is almost exclusively what 10% of the population looks like, 90% are shabby girls with glasses and nerds.
 
Cyberpunkd said:
That's because by definition Asian women are not. Koreans living in big cities all have plastic surgery if they can worry it, same with men. What you see on TV is almost exclusively what 10% of the population looks like, 90% are shabby girls with glasses and nerds.
Click to expand...
Not to disrespect, but that is probably one of the most retarded shit I've read in this site and that's quite a feat.
 
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