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[LectureMaster]

Shift Up expects Stellar Blade to sell better on PC than PS5, citing global success of Black Myth: Wukong among reasons | Game World Observer

Shift Up has released its financial report for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024. Here’re the key findings about the South Korean company’s performance and its games.

gameworldobserver.com

• According to its Q3 earnings release (in Korean), Shift Up reached ₩58 billion ($41.2 million) in revenue, up 52.3% comapred to the same period last year.
• Operating profit was ₩35.5 billion ($25.2 million), up 120.4% year-over-year, while net profit fell 1.9% to ₩23.4 billion ($16.6 billion).
• Goddess of Victory: Nikke generated ₩34.2 billion ($24.3 million), accounting for 59% of the company’s total revenue. This is down 10.9% compared to Q3 FY23.
• Shift Up cited “somewhat disappointing” performance of the Evangelion collaboration as one of the reasons for the decline in Nikke’s revenue. The company expects a recovery in Q4 thanks to the special 2nd anniversary event.
• Goddess of Victory: Nikke, which recently received a publishing license in China, is expected to launch in the country in the first half of 2025.
• Royalties from Stellar Blade reached ₩22.5 billion ($16 million) in Q3, down 12.7% from ₩25.8 billion ($18.3 million) in the second quarter.
• Despite the expected decline, Stellar Blade continues to sell “steadily.” Shift Up plans to release more content updates and patches to enhance the value of the IP.
• The PC version will come out in 2025, with the studio expecting its sales to exceed those on the PlayStation 5 due to “Steam’s expanding share of the AAA games market” and the recent success of Black Myth: Wukong.
• Stellar Blade sold 1 million copies in its first two months, but its life-to-date sales remain undisclosed.
• Another project in Shift Up’s pipeline is an unannounced multiplatform RPG codenamed Project Witches. The studio plans to launch it after 2027 and share more details about the game in the first half of the next year.
• As of September 30, Shift Up employed 313 people. Its workforce has increased 9.4% year-over-year.

Original Korean Report

 

[adamsapple]

Expecting Stellar Blade PC port sells better than PS5​

 

[GHG]

Considering how well those sex games sell on Steam I'm not surprised.

Once mods are added to the mix, this is one of those, but it actually has fantastic gameplay, it's going to sell tremendously well.

 

[Gaiff]

Doubt it does, but one cannot underestimate the power of horny mods.

 

[ssringo]

Yeah, I have my doubts with it being a late port. But maybe they've got something up their sleeves like launching a substantial DLC alongside it (Raven story mode!) and/or a substantial advertising campaign. As opposed to the standard pump and dump late ports.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Nikke releasing in China will be huge. However, If Netflix messed it up, the backlash will reach colossal proportions.

 

[Punished Miku]

No one on PC is going to buy this for $70 after the delay. They really screwed themselves with this deal. No chance it will have the buzz of something like BMW. Shocking that fans in Korea couldn't even play it on PC until 2025.

 

[SweetTooth]

Isn't PC way bigger than consoles in Korea? So that's a given

Edit: and China also

 

[Fabieter]

It will do good but because wukong sold as much as it did won't give every game a boost.

 

[Xyphie]

They really should've had this out like 2 weeks after BMW to capitalize on that hype train.

 

[Hot5pur]

Sexy characters is fine and all, but in this case it's provocative enough that I image a lot of of guys need to take breaks to service themselves.

When I play videogames I want the blood to remain in my head so I can think, is all I'm saying.

 

[yogaflame]

So the LA office and Netflix partnership is not true? That worries me especially the LA office were there is so much twisted dei and twisted woke agenda poison in USA especially California.

 

[Little Chicken]

They don't sound too enthused about PS5 sales of Stellar Fade.

 

[LectureMaster]

They really screwed themselves with this deal.

Really bad take. Without Sony this game wouldn't even be the same.

Stellar Blade Was a Small Indie Game Until Chance Deal with Playstation｜Game8

2024.03.13 Stellar Blade was a small game before Shuhei Yoshida helped SHIFT UP get a contract with Sony says creators. Read on to learn more about this and more Stellar Blade gameplay info.

game8.co

 

[PauloRoberto]

• The PC version will come out in 2025, with the studio expecting its sales to exceed those on the PlayStation 5 due to “Steam’s expanding share of the AAA games market” and the recent success of Black Myth: Wukong.

Without any price drop, for a not open world game ?! Nah, it won't happen. (and i bought at release, and really liked it).

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Sexy characters is fine and all, but in this case it's provocative enough that I image a lot of of guys need to take breaks to service themselves.

When I play videogames I want the blood to remain in my head so I can think, is all I'm saying.

You aren't thinking much if all you can say about the game is bullshit.

 

[Three]

Doubt it does, but one cannot underestimate the power of horny mods.

It's mostly an asian game so it will do well.

 

[Self_Destructive]

It's not a good idea for them to compare Black Myth and Stellar Blade in such a way IMO. It should do ok... but it's also going to be a year later and there's other shit to play.

Hope it does well for them though.

 

[LectureMaster]

Without any price drop, for a not open world game ?! Nah, it won't happen. (and i bought at release, and really liked it).

It'll do great in Asia, and countries like China have regional prices so it won't be an issue.

 

[Kabelly]

One game I will 100% double dip for. It already looked great on PS5 but I wanna see the juice.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Isn't PC way bigger than consoles in Korea? So that's a given

Edit: and China also

And Europe, and more....


Yeah, i think it will be big worldwide on pc though.

 

[Fabieter]

It's not a good idea for them to compare Black Myth and Stellar Blade in such a way IMO. It should do ok... but it's also going to be a year later and there's other shit to play.

Hope it does well for them though.

Not only that BMW sold like 80% of all copies in China. No way devs start to expect that performance of all games going forward.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I was so close to buying Stellar Blade on the PS5 Pro. I’m glad I waited.

 

[tusharngf]

late port .. i am not sure if it will sell that well. Day 1 game is a much better option.

 

[BennyBlanco]

It makes sense that they bring up Wukong, because much like China PC gaming is massive in Korea and consoles aren’t very popular

 

[.Xeno]

Waiting for that PC release, mods will be crazy.

 

[Holammer]

Selling better on PC sounds reasonable, especially after the batshit insane monster success of Wukong.

959k user reviews on Steam in three months. For a a comparison Elden Ring got 978k in 2 years. Wukong cheats a little because buying the game became a national pride thing in China and hype boosted it to the moon sales wise.

 

[Felessan]

No one on PC is going to buy this for $70 after the delay. They really screwed themselves with this deal. No chance it will have the buzz of something like BMW. Shocking that fans in Korea couldn't even play it on PC until 2025.

China and Korea will.

Not only that BMW sold like 80% of all copies in China. No way devs start to expect that performance of all games going forward.

Asian games developed for Asian market (all those anime girls in extreme outfits) actually sells pretty good in Asia.

 

[Aenima]

Anyone expecting Stellar Blade to sell even close to Black Myth on PC is delusional. Black Myth Wukong was carried by chinese players. I expect it to sell on PC as well as it did on PS5 though.

 

[kevboard]

BE WARNED!

THIS IS UNREAL ENGINE 4!
SO DON'T EXPECT A GOOD PC VERSION!
EXPECT A COMPLETELY BROKEN PC VERSION, AND BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED IF IT TURNS OUT GOOD!

 

[TintoConCasera]

BE WARNED!

THIS IS UNREAL ENGINE 4!

Not every Unreal game runs like shit lol.

It's up to the devs. If they do a proper job the game should run just fine.

 

[rofif]

lol they are delusional if they think PC players will buy single player game that is not from cd projekt or from from.
They would've to be lucky. Only some single player games sell at full price on pc.

 

[kevboard]

Not every Unreal game runs like shit lol.

It's up to the devs. If they do a proper job the game should run just fine.

yes... but do you trust a former mobile gatcha dev to make a good PC port in UE4?

I certainly don't. every UE4/5 game is seen as probably trash port until proven otherwise in my book.

 

[drotahorror]

lol they are delusional if they think PC players will buy single player game that is not from cd projekt or from from.
They would've to be lucky. Only some single player games sell at full price on pc.

Case in point - Forspoken. Console darling, PC flop.

 

[Branded]

BE WARNED!

THIS IS UNREAL ENGINE 4!
SO DON'T EXPECT A GOOD PC VERSION!
EXPECT A COMPLETELY BROKEN PC VERSION, AND BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED IF IT TURNS OUT GOOD!

THANK YOU.

 

[pasterpl]

Anyone expecting Stellar Blade to sell even close to Black Myth on PC is delusional. Black Myth Wukong was carried by chinese players. I expect it to sell on PC as well as it did on PS5 though.

In Asia, console games accounted for a mere 8.7% of the market, in large part likely due to South Korea's small console market. PC and mobile games, on the other hand, account for 25.7% and 54.1% in Asia, respectively, a stark contrast to the rest of the world.

 

[mayham2199]

They don't sound too enthused about PS5 sales of Stellar Fade.

They already announced it exceeded expectations a while back.

 

[Aenima]

In Asia, console games accounted for a mere 8.7% of the market, in large part likely due to South Korea's small console market. PC and mobile games, on the other hand, account for 25.7% and 54.1% in Asia, respectively, a stark contrast to the rest of the world.

That means nothing. Black Myth Wukong is a national treasure. Its an iconic chinese story made by a chinese dev. The crazy numbers on steam are 90% from chinese players.
As good as Stellar Blade is, it will not even get close to Black Myth Wukong. Comparing to how Nier Automata performed would be a more realistic expectation.

 

[Haint]

Day and date PC may well have outsold PS5, year+ late port definitely aint unless it becomes like a symbol of national pride and Koreans buy it up by the droves (a la Wukong). EU and US will dramatically underperform PS5 though.

 

[Bojanglez]

Day and date PC may well have outsold PS5, late port definitely aint unless it becomes like a symbol of national pride and Koreans buy it up by the droves (a la Wukong). EU and US will dramatically underperform PS5.

Maybe, but launching on PS5 only probably allowed them to refine the game without too many hardware configuration variables, received a chuck of marketing money to help mitigate risk (which could help PC dev) and take advantage of Sony's global marketing machine.

All this will help the PC version be better and yeah, may ultimately outsell the PS5 version. But it was logical to go with timed exclusivity for a new IP from a team unfamiliar with AAA releases.

 

[TheStam]

Bored of these moneyhatted late releases, but I guess I might buy it from some shady key site.

 

[Ozriel]

Anyone expecting Stellar Blade to sell even close to Black Myth on PC is delusional. Black Myth Wukong was carried by chinese players. I expect it to sell on PC as well as it did on PS5 though.

That means nothing. Black Myth Wukong is a national treasure. Its an iconic chinese story made by a chinese dev. The crazy numbers on steam are 90% from chinese players.
As good as Stellar Blade is, it will not even get close to Black Myth Wukong. Comparing to how Nier Automata performed would be a more realistic expectation.

There's literally nobody here that's stated they expect this to sell anywhere near BMW on PC. You're pretty much arguing with yourself.

Maybe, but launching on PS5 only probably allowed them to refine the game without too many hardware configuration variables, received a chuck of marketing money to help mitigate risk (which could help PC dev) and take advantage of Sony's global marketing machine.

All this will help the PC version be better and yeah, may ultimately outsell the PS5 version. But it was logical to go with timed exclusivity for a new IP from a team unfamiliar with AAA releases.

Even if they'd made the PC port launch day and date, They would still have received marketing money from Sony as a benefit of making the game console exclusive.

 

[Fabieter]

In Asia, console games accounted for a mere 8.7% of the market, in large part likely due to South Korea's small console market. PC and mobile games, on the other hand, account for 25.7% and 54.1% in Asia, respectively, a stark contrast to the rest of the world.

Did lies on p sell like BMW? Its a Asian souls like which was super well received.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Selling better on PC sounds reasonable, especially after the batshit insane monster success of Wukong

I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect this to be compared to Wukong and getting a massive uplift in Asia which slants more to PC

 

[Neofire]

Expected to sell better than the PlayStation version? Right. Shiftup needs to focus on the next game, they are banking too much on stellar blade. It's a fantastic game no doubt.

 

[Senua]

lol they are delusional if they think PC players will buy single player game that is not from cd projekt or from from.
They would've to be lucky. Only some single player games sell at full price on pc.

These are the rofif posts I missed

 

[delishcaek]

This game has the potential to sell many more copies on PC, depending on how modable it is.

Expected to sell better than the PlayStation version? Right. Shiftup needs to focus on the next game, they are banking too much on stellar blade. It's a fantastic game no doubt.

No, they need to fulfill the promise the made... which was a PC version. Them adding more and more content to the game is fantastic for everyone who owns it as well as these updates keep the game in people's minds.

 

[Aenima]

Maybe, but launching on PS5 only probably allowed them to refine the game without too many hardware configuration variables, received a chuck of marketing money to help mitigate risk (which could help PC dev) and take advantage of Sony's global marketing machine.

All this will help the PC version be better and yeah, may ultimately outsell the PS5 version. But it was logical to go with timed exclusivity for a new IP from a team unfamiliar with AAA releases.

Sony also lended them the studio XDev that helped in the game development and optimizations for console.

 

[nowhat]

Sony also lended them the studio XDev that helped in the game development and optimizations for console.

XDev devs are the unsung heroes of SIE studios. They don't make games themselves, but have helped to birth some great titles. I guess you could call them midwives of sorts.

 

[Bojanglez]

Even if they'd made the PC port launch day and date, They would still have received marketing money from Sony as a benefit of making the game console exclusive.

I can't imagine Sony would give them as much money if it wasn't a complete timed exclusive.