Stellar Blade director receives Presidential Commendation

Margarita Kicevski December 15, 2025

34 1 minute read

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 is a third-person action-adventure game set on a post-apocalyptic Earth. Players control Eve, an elite soldier deployed from an orbital colony to reclaim the planet from hostile creatures called Naytibas. The combat system emphasizes timing-based parrying and evasion, with skill gauges that unlock powerful attacks and buffs. The game features exploration across ruined environments, side quests from NPC survivors in the last human city of Xion, and a narrative with multiple endings based on player choices.