Stellar Blade and Lies of P impacted the Korean games industry in much the same way that Black Myth: Wukong hit China, reckons Shift Up technical director Dong-ki Lee.
Speaking with GamesRadar+ at Gamescom 2026, Lee, hot on the heels of the Stellar Blade: Blood Rain reveal, examines the impact of Stellar Blade and its success.
"Games like ours, and also Lies of P, those kinds of games came out in Korea and that really made developers in Korea go take up the challenge for console games more," Lee reasons. "And we have Crimson Desert now as well, so they're having all this influence on each other, so that's really good."
Lies of P is often called the best Soulslike produced outside of FromSoftware headquarters, and Crimson Desert is one of the biggest games of 2026. Stellar Blade sold millions of copies and, like Lies of P, is due for a sequel. It's also encouraged Shift Up to take on more ambitious projects like fellow "AAA-class" game Project Spirits, due to be revealed this year.
Like China, whose games industry has seen paradigm shifts in the shadow of (primarily) Genshin Impact and Black Myth: Wukong, games like Stellar Blade have made a strong case for core console and PC games in spaces long dominated by mobile and online games. Crimson Desert, a full-fat successor to the MMO Black Desert, is a perfect example. Sequel Black Myth: Zhong Kui, meanwhile, recently dropped a promising demo.
To this day, Shift Up also maintains Goddess of Victory: Nikke, a famously sexy mobile game and a key breadwinner for the studio. I've been covering games for 13 years, and when I think about the next 10 years of games, PC gaming, China, and Korea are among the first trends that come to mind.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is also important to Shift Up, Lee says, as it's another major platform and another home for Stellar Blade. With its upcoming port, Lee says "all the skills and knowhow gained from developing for PlayStation 5 and PC, we wanted to now showcase that on Switch 2. I personally really enjoyed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That was one of my favorite games, so I'm really happy to be able to showcase Stellar Blade on the Switch 2."
As it happens, the Switch 2 edition of Stellar Blade will be publicly playable for the first time at Tokyo Game Show 2026 this September. Stellar Blade got one of the best PC ports in ages, so there are high hopes for this port.
