Stellar Blade 2 will be self-published, allowing marketing strategies based on franchise’s ‘unique appeal’

Stellar Blade’s buxom heroine Eve is coming back for another adventure, and this time she’ll be on her own.

The first Stellar Blade landed with an 81 on Metacritic along with a 9.1 user score, so it’s been received well across the board in varying degrees. It was published by PlayStation and was a timed exclusive for the console, but that will change for the next game.

Developer Shift Up confirmed today that “development of the next title is progressing smoothly, on track to meet our targeted quality standards,” and that the game will be self-published by the studio.

“Notably, starting with this next title, Shift Up will transition to a first-party service model,” the company said in its latest earnings call. “This will allow us to lead marketing strategies that fully reflect the distinctive identity of the IP, and we expect to communicate the unique appeal of its universe to players more directly and effectively.”

I’m not 100 percent sure what this means, but it sounds as though the company didn’t agree with the game’s marketing with PlayStation in tow. Self-publishing allows for more freedom and the ability to launch on all platforms, obviously, but I am curious what the studio thinks it can do better this time around.

“Building on the strong fandom and evergreen IP status established by the first, we are formulating an optimal go-to-market strategy designed to maximize sales and reach a broad global audience from day one,” Shift Up said.

I played a few hours of Stellar Blade, and it never caught on with me to keep going, but I did enjoy its combat from the outset. The conversation around the title always seems to lead to Eve’s sexy design and outfits, so I can only wonder if that’s the “distinctive identity” the company is referring to in its upcoming change in marketing strategy.

“With three key tailwinds — high-quality self-publishing capabilities, a sales maximization strategy, and a proven IP fanbase — we are confident the next title will deliver meaningfully improved results compared to its predecessor,” Shift Up said.

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Forza Horizon 6 somehow leaked and was cracked wide open over the weekend, leading to some players gaining access to it well ahead of its launch day.

The game isn’t due to launch until May 19 (the Premium Edition gets access four days earlier), but many have somehow unlocked and begun playing the game as early as a few days ago. Gameplay videos have begun appearing on YouTube, Twitch, and other websites, and it’s gotten a bit out of hand, forcing the game’s devs to address it.

It seems that players accessing the game likely has something to do with an early access review build appearing as 155 GB of unencrypted downloadable files on SteamDB, and developer Playground Games says it is “not the result of a pre-load issue.” It’s possible that a content creator or reviewer with early access broke embargo and made it all possible.

“We are taking strict enforcement action against any individuals found accessing this build including franchise-wide and hardware bans,” Playground said. “We encourage fans to sit tight for the game’s release on May 19.”

The full game is now reportedly appearing on piracy sites, although some who have accessed it say they were able to do so simply by pre-ordering. The player who was first to crack the game says that its files were not encrypted, so it’s turned into a bit of a blame game.

No matter who or what is at fault, Playground says it may be banning people who play it early, and some have taken exception to that by claiming that it was a mistake on the studio’s end and that they should not be punished for playing the game early because of it.

But for those who pirated the game illegally once it leaked, there’s no real argument to be had, so think twice before booting up the game before it’s unlocked for real later this week or next, depending on which edition you buy.

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