Stellar Blade 2 PS5 Reveal This Year, But Sony Won't Publish It

Probably for the best. Now that they've got an established successful IP to work with, Sony's money is not worth suffering their oversight.

Hope they implement on what was built and don't try anything too crazy. The game was fun and a nice ride

Would rather they do their own thing than Sony to try to censor it or other stuff with their involvement

Looking forward to it. Really enjoythe firso one. Part way through a 3rd play through for the last ending to get the plat. As @HaveTheSauce said, I hope they dont mess around too much with the core gameplay and just build upon what they already nailed.

Day one for sure. Can't wait for the EVE figure in January!

Here's hoping they actually add a story and some personality this time that isn't just poor man's Nier.

Well i'm happy for Shift Up. But i wonder if they can do launch event like the 1st game. My country had a pretty cool launch event with Eve cosplayer and Sony also shares some cute merchandise.
https://blog.playstation.com/2024/04/11/20240412-stellarblade/

I believe other Asian countries like Malaysia and S.Korea also had launch event.
https://www.gamerbraves.com/stellar-blade-malaysia-launch-event-features-meet-and-greet-with-cosplayer-le-josette-as-eve/

@RagnarLothbrok Sony didn't censor anything in the 1st game.

Stellar Blade is currently my favorite game this gen. Looking forward to the 2nd game.

@PuppetMaster alot has changed since last release. Yoshida managed its codevelopment before. Now its Herman and California running interference which has shown mostly this gen in their games

Highly looking forward to the sequel. Stellar Blade is definitely in the conversation for my favorite game of the generation so I'm naturally very excited to see how they improve things in the sequel.

Of course Sony won't publish it. They've been compromised ever since they departed from Japan and based themselves in west coast USA.

Sony's "values" are antithetical to video gaming now and we have to remember that Shift Up fired two feminists who complained about how the female characters were designed. Even though EVE is modeled after a real woman and the male characters in Stellar Blade are also appealing to look at for the female gaze. Shift Up separating themselves from Sony means that Stellar Blade 2 will hopefully be a proper sequel without EVE and other characters suddenly being flat as a board and lacking curves and beauty.

And with Sony recently deciding that it wants to return to exclusivity titles for the PS and that they aren't porting to PC anymore, this also means we'll hopefully have a PC release of Stellar Blade 2 as well, which I'll certainly pre-order.

Stellar Blade was such a breath of fresh air and return to what video gaming used to be that it's one of few modern video games I've bothered to 100% complete by playing through NG+.

@TornAsunder I think the far more likely explanation is that Shift Up are a big enough company to develop and publish the game themselves.

Easily one of the best new IPs to come out this gen, safe to say I'll be there day 1 without fail, as Shift up proved to me they are one the best new studios, literally found zero bugs or performance issues, the only improvement they need to do is with the story telling, but PLEASE keep with the same compossers for the next OST. Yes again I thought this was common knowledge that Sony weren't publishing SB2...?

Maybe Eve just likes it better that way xD

@RagnarLothbrok Stellar Blade 1 was released with Hermen in his 5th year as SIE CEO and nothing censored. Or recent release like Ghost of Yotei where Atsu take a bath in the hot spring and they didn't censored her cheeks.

I don't like Hermen but you're too quick to scream censored here.

@ShadowRJ They wouldn't take logical reason like that.

@RagnarLothbrok You mean the Sony what let Stellar Blade through "uncensored"? The Last of Us Part 2? Baldurs Gate 3? Cyberpunk?

Fun fact there's way more chance of seeing nudity in a Sony game in the west because Asia doesn't like nudity and even violence with many games having to be censored over there.

@PuppetMaster Or Kingdom Come 2 that features nudity and sex.

Really looking forward to the sequel, the first game is great.

@PuppetMaster I am aware, but I feel that the truth needs to be pointed out so that more people aren't taken in by this kind of retoric.

@TornAsunder You understand there won't be nudity in SB2 right? Asia doesn't like nudity in games and usually censor games with it. You would never get the level of sex and nudity you see in games like TLoUP2, Kingdom Come 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 from Korea, China and Japan.

Also funny you mention Eve was "based on a real woman" because they actually changed her real life model not long after SB's release to another one. That's how little Eve resembled her.

@DennisReynolds If I understand correctly, it's actually illegal to sell games with "that" content in Japan, hence why games like God of War 3, Baldur's Gate 3, The Witcher 3 etc are all censored there.

And as for the whole "based off a real woman" thing, I believe Eve's model was created in part by body scanning a Korean model, with other aspects of her appearance being based off of the director's wife.

So does this mean the sequel will be multiplatform? If so, at least bring the first game over

@anoyonmus I think the first game was originally supposed to be a multi platform release, when it was first showed off under the Project Eve name.

Granted it will depend on if the companies want the game on their platforms (hardware power, too, in one instance) but hopefully this means Nintendo and Xbox could be included next time around.

@PuppetMaster While it did release under herman watch. Shuhei Yoshida, basically took lead and was running middle man in it development, and pushed for Sony to help with development. it was under his watch and guidance, not really Herman. There is a reason why he is referred to as the "mother of Stellar Blade"

@AverageGamer Hermen was Yoshida boss and i bet he also checked Stellar Blade marketing or in-game contents that showed Eve revealing outfits where he can easily order Yoshida to censored it. So it doesn't change the fact Stellar Blade was released without censorship like at all. The same as Atsu's cheeks and other games that showed nudity and even sex scenes like Baldurs Gate 3, Kingdom Come 2, Cyberpunk etc.

People need to calm down before they jump to the culture war and fear mongering Stellar Blade 2 will get censored by Hermen.

@DennisReynolds Yeah we can add Kingdom Come 2 as another proof that Sony under Hermen didn't do this brutal censorship like some people believes.

@ShadowRJ True. Kudos to you to pointed out the truth 🤝

@PuppetMaster sony is very selective in what they want to censor and not censor. They censored the DMC V girls rear end back in the day but left the Last of Us 2 Abby doggy scene in as one example

@RagnarLothbrok I can't speak for TLOU but the DMCV thing was dumb on both sides, Capcom knew what they were doing and they didn't have to do it, it was completely superfluous.

@RagnarLothbrok There's no proof Sony was the one who censored DMC V and more like Capcom own initiative to avoid DMC V get Cero-Z rating in Japan. But they forgot to removed the lens flare for US/EU/Asia version. That's why Capcom quickly released a patch that removed the lens flare.

Capcom themself has track record to do self censorship for decades. Recently they removed Rising Sun flag from E.Honda stage in SF II and Oyu waterfall scene & alt.outfit in Onimusha 2 HD got censored.

@DennisReynolds

Asia doesn't like nudity in games and usually censor games with it. You would never get the level of sex and nudity you see in games like TLoUP2, Kingdom Come 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 from Korea, China and Japan.

I can't speak for China or Korea but Japan has been putting out games with nudity (and a lot more) for over 40 years. Most of Japan's historic publishers released at least one such title in the 80s, They just aren't console games or are heavily edited for their console versions.

Your examples have nothing on Japan's Eroge games.

@LowDefAl Not mainstream though are they? Its basically like Agony/Succubus and fun fact the PS5 version of Succubus in the UK/EU is 100% uncensored complete with hardcore porn level sex and nudity. Basically put its very very rare to see these games touch PS5's, Xbox's and Switch's.

@ShadowRJ I heard rumors of the 1st game going multiplatform (at least for Switch 2) but we shall see if it comes to fruition.

So long as it's a good game and it comes out on PS5 (preferably without a delay), who cares who publishes it? I don't.

Yeah, Shift Up doesnt need Sony anymore. Not like relationships back on the PS2/Gamecube era where relationships and loyalty meant something. Microsoft came along and opened their fat checkbook and gave you the world you have today. Whoopie.....

As much as I liked SB, I have just as little confidence in its successor.

You really just need to look at the credits to see how many developers from XDEV worked on SB. And now Shift Up seriously believes they can handle all of that on their own? Yeah—good luck with that, especially with UE5.

I am already fully expecting that SB2 will not feature a multi-dub (German/French/Spanish/Italian), but rather only English, Korean, and Chinese/Japanese.

In my eyes, it seems good old Kim is simply getting a bit too big for his boots, believing he has the next Black Myth: Wukong on his hands here.

But the "evil" Sony—without which SB would never have existed—has destroyed all potential. However, should things not work out with SB 2 (and I firmly assume that SB 2 will sell worse than SB, at least on the PS5), Sony cannot be blamed. Although the usual suspects will do so anyway.

@KawakiisaFraud

You really just need to look at the credits to see how many developers from XDEV worked on SB. And now Shift Up seriously believes they can handle all of that on their own? Yeah—good luck with that, especially with UE5.

So you don't think with their new found success Shift Up won't have hired more developers?

It's embarrassing to see Sony's head up their rectum with this stuff but go all-in on titles destined to be spectacular failures at the behest of investors and activists who not only hate games, but also Sony's core audience.

@FxTANK But Sony never owned the IP so it's completely up to Shift up what they do with it.

Omg let's f...goooo I'm assuming 2027 release
More eve is always good
I want more crazy looking costumes,more weapons types and pls let us play with tachi or raven
Ohhhh we need more swimsuit
Oooh and give us some fine Halloween costumes 😏

@RagnarLothbrok the game was never censored in the first place and 2nd the outfits slight change was all shift up not Sony
I love shift up but we need be real

U guys know Asia counties censor more crap then the west when it comes to games u can't show dam gore in Japan get off your high gear everyone censored they have to for freaking games ratings

@FxTANK touch some grass I think some of take your hobby too seriously

Still need to play this game 😅

Nice to hear! Now give me Switch 2 version please!

@Slayer25c or it could be that some of us are sick of constant inundation for something entirely not organic and that nobody ever asked for regardless of whether its in media, entertainment, education, hobbies, their careers, their worship, et al.

It's pretty apparent Sony is trying hard to appease someone other than the customers who helped get them where they are

@KawakiisaFraud Agreed with what you said about if Stellar Blade 2 sold less than the 1st game, have less dubs, or whatever that makes the 1st game looks better then people can't blame Sony, not even one bit. They must pointed their fingers at Shift Up.

Are people still getting their panties in a bunch over this game? Move on folks. I've still not played this mainly due to the fact it's still a very expensive game to purchase and it's never on a deep sale. I'd buy physical but that's almost as expensive as the digital version. I'll get it eventually but I'm hoping that the 2nd game is cheaper at launch.

@TornAsunder late to the party here. But mostly all video game characters are based on real people. Main character in Intergalactic is based on a real person. Did that stop you lot from reacting the way you have?

It was alright but ultimately it was just a weaker nier automata

I'll queue up in the rain for it... Hell, I'd preorder direct with ShiftUp if it helped them push it over the line. The story was a bit thin (and obvious) but the game was fun, and the level of support ShiftUp have given it most impressive, so I'm very optimistic that this will be an absolute blast.

I hope SB2 can mix some Crimson Desert in there.... the game deserve to be able to adventure over 100+ hours of gameplay.