Hyung-tae Kim, director of Stellar Blade and head of developer Shift Up, received a Presidential Commendation on December 10 during the 2025 Korea Content Awards, an event run by the Korea Creative Content Agency under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
Local coverage of the ceremony appeared on Daum and was translated and summarized by Automaton, which noted the award recognizes contributions to the national creative industries. The original Daum report is available here and the English translation appears on Automaton here. The accolade comes after Stellar Blade sold over three million copies by mid-2025 and follows Shift Up’s earlier success with Goddess of Victory: Nikke in 2023. Shift Up currently lists a Stellar Blade sequel in development, plus a project codenamed Project Spirits, which is due in 2027.
In his remarks accepting the commendation, Kim singled out his studio and the game’s community, saying, “This Presidential Commendation is thanks to the development team and fans who believed in and supported Shift Up. We will continue to do our utmost to further showcase the competitiveness of Korean games on the global stage.” Those tracking Shift Up’s postlaunch support for Stellar Blade can find recent update details in a Console & PC Gaming report on the game’s ongoing patches and platform support here.
Additional context about the award and the ceremony is available in the translated coverage linked above.
Follow Console & PC Gaming for further updates on Stellar Blade and Shift Up at X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.
Stellar Blade
Developed by SHIFT UP
Eve and her comrades land on the surface to reclaim the extinct Earth and cross paths with a survivor named Adam. Eve is then led by Adam to the last surviving city, Xion, where she meets the elder of the town Orcal and is told many stories. In order to serve her mission to save Earth, Eve develops close relationships with the key members of Xion and contributes to rebuilding the city.
On a mission to save Earth from the NA:tive, Eve is also faced with helping out the citizens of Xion. Whether you will help the survivors or not, depends purely on your decision as the player.
The game originally was announced as "Project Eve" in 2019. It was set to release for PS4/Xbox One consoles and PC, but a September 2022 State of Play revealed the game would instead launch only on PS5 and PC.
- Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure
- Platforms: PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
- Modes: Single player
- Release: 2024-04-26
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
-
Age Rating:
GRAC 19+ / ESRB M / PEGI 18 / USK 18 / CERO D / CLASS_IND 16 / ACB MA 15+
- IGDB Rating: 81.6/100
