Shift Up may be about to make its console debut with PS5 exclusive Stellar Blade, but the developer already has a behemoth gacha in its back pocket in the form of the saucy third-person shooter, NIKKE: Goddess of Victory. Unsurprisingly, then, it’s about to be rolling in cash as it plans to take its company public via the Korean Stock Exchange.
The firm filed an application back on 5th March, with its valuation expected to top ₩3 trillion (~$2.3 billion) following the sale of its public shares. You didn’t misread any of the numbers there, by the way: that’s approximately $2.3 billion with a ‘B’. Analysts believe the ongoing popularity of its aforementioned gacha as well as the upcoming Stellar Blade will attract significant interest.
The amazing thing is Shift Up is only a little over a decade old, having been founded in 2013. Sales in NIKKE: Goddess of Victory regularly top Sensor Tower reports, which has prompted multiple rounds of investment from Chinese juggernaut Tencent. Assuming Stellar Blade reviews as well as expected, it looks like the future is incredibly bright for Shift Up overall.
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[source kind.krx.co.kr, via gameworldobserver.com]
Comments 34
Polite comments about Nikke and the people that play it incoming.
I wonder if the folks at Sony are checking their back pockets 🤔
A minority interest wouldn't do any harm given the success of Nikke.
Arrowhead being the priority of course (we assume).
Never heard of Nikke… shows how much interest I have in gacha and mobile gaming I guess.
Nooooo. No shareholders please. Eventually they’ll be pressured to dial down the beauty.
Well Tencent will probably buy some shares so Sony may as well. They are currently trying to make inroads into the South Korean gaming market so it would make sense and just be a similar situation to what they've already got with FromSoftware.
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Well, that didn't take long. <smh>
@Shepherd_Tallon That wouldn't be a great look right now given recent cost cutting measure. Even a minimal share purchase would be very bad PR after sacking 900 staff members and closing an entire studio.
@LowDefAl we are talking about sony brother, I love them but if there is a thing they DON'T know how to do is good pr so it could happen.
Only 30% will be public and most likely some Saudi prince will buy it so everything is ok.
As a comment said above Sony priority should be Arrowhead not a little piece of Shift up.
@LowDefAl I don't know if it's the kind of PR that matters.
The overwhelming majority of PlayStation's customers won't be aware of any of that, and a good investment is a good investment.
It's not uncommon to cut costs before an acquisition or investment.
It probably won't be Shift Up, but Sony will definitely be looking at Arrowhead.
@TwoDents Agreed. I have this game preordered, and am also a huge fan of Last of Us 2, Horizon etc. I’m just sick of listening to this (Elon Musk boosted) rhetoric. No different than the screeching about the female road to the show mode in MLB The Show. It doesn’t hurt anyone by putting it in there
Any stock related news about art is always the best sign!
@Optimus
Absolutely correct. But having 'fanservice' outfits in games doesn't hurt them either, doesn't stop people from crying about that and unfortunately devs listen. Shift Up seemed to be one that bucked the recent trend but going public means there is a good chance their future games get toned down. I don't blame people who like them for being disappointed about that.
@thefourfoldroot1 Finally someone who gets it. Shareholders are coming to block our boners! This is starting to make me question my priorities, which is definitely not cool bro. I need a Pocky stick, pronto! Keep the dream alive.
what are the expectations for this game of which we know so little about? i think people are going to be disappointed when they realize it is shallow and lacking next to the games it is clearly inspired by. it has been a long time since i have seen a game by an unproven developer this overhyped. now would be a good time to lower expectations unless 6s and 7s are what you are looking for here.
Once Again, These Titles Would be So Much Easier to Read if Not Almost Every Word Started With a Capital.
@TwoDents What did Elon Musk do to you?
This game is turning into a political statement for those who claim they don't want (gender) politics in their games. Their kind of attitude is exactly the reason why organizations like Sweet Baby Inc. and POC in games need to exist. If everybody toned it the hell down and acted with a little bit of restraint we could still have nice thing.
How many more YouTube bros using this game as a battle cry for the "death of wokeness" does there need to be?
In my opinion, diversity has not ruined anything it's the gatekeeping chads that cry "x company has gone woke" that have ruined all fandoms.
Don't get me wrong. I like me a little bit of fan service too and can appreciate a good fantasy female form. But for Gordon's sake act like you have seen a tiddy before.
@MikeOrator
They've got a point though?
Nothing wrong with strong characters of any kind, but to force it down people's throats with horrible, HORRIBLE writing and garbage characters... Holy crap now that's offensive.
And I did take offence to the nonsense in Spider-Man.
I don't want to be forced down people's throats, it's embarrassing as hell, especially when it's these obvious forced characters and "storytelling" that do so.
What happened to actual strong characters of any kind that didn't suck and actually empowered whatever they "represented" without trying to represent anything
@Specky
nobody is forcing it down anybody's throat. Play it or don't play it, watch it or don't watch it. nobody is force to take part in anything.
Sure sometimes it gets heavy-handed but it is the right direction and things will balance out as creative people learn what they are doing.
But to claim it's bad writing or poor characterizations is just plain ignorant.
Would love to see Sony doing acquisitions in Korea, seems to be a real hotbed of developers there currently
@MikeOrator
''But to claim it's bad writing or poor characterizations is just plain ignorant.''
Because that Saints Row Reboot was just a veritable feast of great writing and excellent characters. The ''Waffle Maker Man'' was just so engrossing! I didn't miss Johnny Gat at all, no siree!
Oh and btw, yes, the intention was to ''force it down your throat''. The lead developer even said so on Twitter during his unprofessional rants against the old fanbase.
@LifeGirl
Sometimes bad is just bad, but some of these people think that if it's diverse or anything it automatically makes it bad. We have had bad writing in games, movies and books long before "wokeness" and what did we blame it on then...
...and don't use one disingenuous example to make claims for the entire industry
@MikeOrator The ultimate irony being that if the main character Eve was even a modicum less attractive, those same YouTube bros would be calling her a woke Mary-Sue character.
@MikeOrator Sorry, but it's not just one example. There are great lists of them across all media. I actually doubt that we would even be having this conversation if large amounts of pattern recognition was not in play.
Regardless of what you may think about ''certain'' Youtube channels, you cannot build up a million subs talking about just a couple of instances. Such channels require vast amounts of new content to keep the fires burning.
@Enuo Rey Skywalker AKA Daisy Ridley is incredibly beautiful. She is also the de-facto go-to example of a woke Mary Sue character regardless of how fair that is.
Sorry, but you are provably wrong.
@LifeGirl
If you mean the channels that get millions of subscribers in an echo chamber spouting rage bait and conspiracy theories about things that racists and misogynists think are happening then you are correct.
My office hours are from 9 to 5 so no further responses will be given at this time.
Live service here we come...
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Removed - off-topic
@CielloArc
Comment number 6 and then me quoting it in comment 7. Then I got in a mood and trolled and got exactly the responses I hopeing for so I trolled more. Then I got piled on. lol. Typical day on the internet. lol.
@CielloArc If you exclude games that did meet success like God of War Ragnarök, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Alan Wake 2, sure, none of them met success.
Really? Talking about esg/die is banned offense now? Why make comment section at all then 🤷🏻
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