Stellar Blade Dev is doing so well that all 311 employees received a PS5 Pro and a $3,400 bonus

Shift Up, the South Korean company behind the PlayStation 5 exclusive action game Stellar Blade, has gifted all employees a PlayStation 5 Pro as well as a cash bonus of 5 million won (approximately $3,400).

As VGC found out, the South Korean publication Naver reported that the eye-catching bonuses were aimed at encouraging the company’s employees. In the third quarter of last year, 311 people worked at Shift Up.

Shift Up had an impressive 2024. Published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Stellar Blade released exclusively on PS5 in April and sold more than a million copies in two months. IGN’s Stellar Blade Review returned a 7/10. We said, “Stellar Blade is great in all the important aspects of an action game, but dull characters, a lackluster story, and several frustrating elements of its RPG mechanics prevent it from competing with the best in the genre.” Since then, Shift Up has kept the game going updated and most importantly added crossover DLCs with other video game franchises Nier: Automata.

In July, Shift Up raised 435 billion won (about $320 million) on its first day of trading after an IPO. Accordingly BloombergThat was the largest in the country for a gaming company since 2021, when PUBG maker Krafton Inc. raised $3.8 billion through its own IPO.

In a recent financial report, Shift Up said that after launching Stellar Blade, “sales remained at a stabilized level,” although no updated sales figures were provided. However, it did generate revenue directly attributable to the game: 25.8 billion won (approximately $18.5 million) during the quarter in which Stellar Blade was released (April to June) and 22.5 billion won (approximately $16.1 million) in the company’s third quarter (July to September). That’s a total of 48.4 billion won (around $34.6 million) as of the end of September. For context: Shift Up’s other game, mobile action RPG Goddess of Victory: Nikkemakes more money than Stellar Blade (about $51.9 million in the same two quarters).

There’s more to come too. The developer has confirmed and hinted at plans to release Stellar Blade on PC in 2025 Black Myth: WukongSteam’s incredible success in predicting more sales on PC than PS5.

Shift Up has an unannounced multiplatform game codenamed Project Witches scheduled for release after 2027. Given the success of Stellar Blade, it seems likely that Shift Up is also considering a sequel.

Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].