- Primary Subject: Stellar Blade AI Controversy
- Key Update: Shift Up's use of AI in promotional content for Stellar Blade.
- Status: Published
- Last Verified: 2026-08-03
- Quick Answer: We discuss the controversy surrounding Stellar Blade developer Shift Up's use of generative AI for promotional content and its implications for the gaming industry.
Stellar Blade developer Shift Up using AI is disappointing, but not at all surprising if you’ve been paying attention. Sadly, it’s yet another instance of Asian developers embracing generative AI, much to the detriment of their public perception on social media.
If you are out of the loop, to quickly bring you up to speed, Shift Up recently posted a promotional video for Stellar Blade: Blood Rain that stirred major controversy. The video is an AI-generated music video of Evie, the game’s protagonist, singing a song called "Wanna be in LOVE." It’s terrible: the visuals, the track that plays, everything about it reeks of low-quality garbage AI slop. It stands in stark contrast to how the studio promoted the first game, where they partnered with K-pop star BIBI to dish out the track "Eve."
Why opt to advertise their upcoming game with generative AI slop? Well, that’s because the technology is becoming increasingly common in development pipelines across the East. Last year, a survey by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA), the organization behind Tokyo Game Show, revealed that 51% of Japanese developers use GenAI in their work pipelines. Perhaps not directly in final player-facing assets, but in areas such as visual concepting, story generation, and programming support.
Let me remind you that GenAI is very different from standard AI-assisted tools—which can and should be developed, provided they don’t strip away creative agency or outright replace human creators. So the fact that over 50% of developers admit to finding a use for it is deeply disheartening.
Shift Up was not part of that specific survey sample given that they are based in South Korea, but it highlights a clear trend that GenAI in Eastern game development is becoming far more prevalent. Don’t believe me? Earlier this year, Shift Up’s CEO himself, Kim Hyung-tae, explained how AI is a "survival mechanism" for studios like theirs.
You might wonder, then: why use GenAI in such a public-facing way? That is because, as Hyung-tae implied, marketing is just another box to tick. He talked about how a single employee could theoretically match the output of 100 (a bit of a stretch by his own admission, but you get the gist of what he’s trying to say). To be more blunt, you can read between the lines and come to a very simple conclusion: in some instances, it’s about quantity over quality.
Why put in the effort to deliver a quality piece of media to promote Blood Rain when using a disposable GenAI video and track saves time and money while suffering little negative impact beyond the echo chamber on Twitter? Ask yourself how many fans of the original Stellar Blade were deterred from buying the sequel after seeing that video; for every single person who claims they won’t purchase a copy, there are likely 10 who will dismiss it and support the game anyway.
In the grand scheme of things, a GenAI piece of garbage to promote a game isn’t a huge surprise. We can discuss ethics all day, but the reality is that if Shift Up feels so unapologetic that they don't even bother addressing the backlash or taking the video down, it begs the question of how much the studio is relying on it behind the scenes.
All the signs were there. If you were truly shocked they pulled a stunt like this, you simply haven’t been paying attention.