Highlights
- Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade director, Kim Hyung-tae, received a Presidential Commendation at the 2025 Korea Content Awards.
- The award recognizes the global impact of Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke in strengthening Korean game IP.
- Stellar Blade peaked at about 192K concurrent Steam players and surpassed 3M copies sold across PS5 and PC.
Stellar Blade director and Shift Up Corporation CEO Kim Hyung-tae has received a Presidential Commendation at the 2025 Korea Content Awards, honoring his contributions to South Korea’s video game industry. The ceremony was held in Seoul last week, Dec. 10, 2025, and was hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
Kim was recognized for strengthening the global competitiveness of Korean game intellectual property through his work at Shift Up, particularly with Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke, according to reports from Daum.
The Korea Content Awards, organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency, are the country’s most prominent honors for individuals and organizations advancing the content sector.
Accepting the award, Kim credited his team and audience for the studio’s progress. “This Presidential Citation is thanks to the developers and fans who believed in and supported Shift Up,” he said, adding that the company will continue efforts to promote Korean games globally.
Stellar Blade and Shift Up’s Global Impact
Shift Up’s recent releases played a central role in the recognition, with Goddess of Victory: Nikke previously honored at the Korea Content Awards in 2023 for its overseas expansion, and Stellar Blade cited for demonstrating the global potential of Korean-developed console games.
Stellar Blade, which launched on PS5 before releasing on PC in June 2025, became a major Steam hit, peaking at about 192K concurrent players and setting a record for a single-player PlayStation-published title, according to Push Square. Investor presentation data shows the game surpassed 3M copies sold across PS5 and PC, underscoring the global reach of Korean studios beyond mobile games.
Looking ahead, Shift Up has confirmed plans for a Stellar Blade sequel, with a projected release window, listed in its financial results, being by the end of 2027.
The studio is also developing Project Spirits, a new cross-platform fantasy action RPG title for PC, consoles, and mobile, to be published globally by Tencent Games’ Level Infinite, signaling its continued push into global markets.
