In a stunning upset, the much-anticipated PC release of Stellar Blade has defied all expectations, blowing past major AAA releases like Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, two games that spent years in development with massive teams, only to flounder under the weight of their own ideological overreach.
Released on June 11th, SHIFT UP’s Stellar Blade peaked at an astonishing 183,830 concurrent players on Steam making it the most successful PlayStation-published single-player game on PC to date.
It soundly trounced prior record-holders including Ghost of Tsushima (77,154), God of War (73,529), and Horizon Zero Dawn, despite launching with Denuvo, a controversial DRM that often deters PC gamers due to its impact on performance towards paying customers.
This surge isn’t due to marketing trickery or algorithmic hype, it’s because Stellar Blade is doing what every Western AAA studio refuses to: unapologetically delivering fanservice, visual fidelity, and a female lead that isn’t designed to appease the ideological quotas of investment groups and Reddit.
Stellar Blade’s triumph lies in its unapologetic rejection of what many gamers see as a creatively stifling trend in the industry: the prioritization of DEI and ESG criteria over player-driven demands.
The game’s protagonist, Eve, modeled after a real-life Korean model, has been both celebrated and vilified for her design, complete with enhanced jiggle physics that have drawn significant attention. Critics, particularly Western gaming journalists, labeled the game as regressive, accusing it of sexism for its “bygone era” aesthetic.
The broader gaming industry, especially among Western and Japanese AAA developers, has steadily embraced DEI-oriented design philosophies. This shift often sees traditional male and female pronunciations replaced by “inclusive” labels such as “Body Type.”
Attractive female characters are frequently criticized as sexist, while games like Concord, Sony’s $400 million hero shooter featuring exclusively androgynous and hideous designs have suffered major commercial failures.
Stellar Blade’s success—highlighting a traditionally feminine lead and refined gameplay serves as a strong counterpoint to the industry’s current direction. It’s a clear reminder that “sex sells” still holds considerable sway in gaming which is largely dominated by straight men.
Meanwhile, much of the Western and Japanese AAA scene remains entrenched in corporate ideological capture, with companies like Capcom, Square Enix, Activision, Microsoft and Nintendo prioritizing ESG compliance and investment over authenticity and player engagement.
The numbers don’t lie. Assassin’s Creed Shadows debuted to lukewarm reception, largely due to Ubisoft’s controversial decision to center the story around Yasuke, a Black figure of minor historical relevance whom they deliberately reimagined as a full-fledged samurai, rewriting Japanese history.
The game underperformed significantly, peaking at just 47,616 concurrent players on Steam. Ubisoft was forced to rely on Ubisoft+ subscribers to inflate engagement metrics. Meanwhile, EA’s long-awaited Dragon Age: The Veilguard, nearly a decade in the making, peaked at only 89,418 concurrent players.
Despite its AAA budget, it was quickly overshadowed by the Monster Hunter Wilds beta and ridiculed for its cast of pansexual, algorithmically diverse companions seemingly crafted to appease social media trends.
Microsoft hasn’t fared any better. Obsidian’s Avowed, led artistically by Matt Hansen who previously prioritized Black artists for portfolio reviews and publicly declared, “We’ve got too many crusty White dudes in this field” also flopped. Even with titles like South of Midnight, another Sweet Baby Inc-associated project featuring a White to Black race swapped protagonist alongside DOOM: The Dark Ages, Microsoft’s string of failures continues to pile up.
In the wake of Veilguard’s release, numerous BioWare employees were let go, signaling further instability at the once-revered studio. Ubisoft, on the other hand, has effectively become a shell company for the Chinese, now entangled in a partnership with Tencent and offloading its legendary franchises into a newly created entity tied to the Chinese conglomerate.
In stark contrast, SHIFT UP, a relatively unknown Korean developer venturing into console development for the very first time operated without such corporate baggage.
And the difference is unmistakable.
In contrast, Stellar Blade’s PC port has been praised for its technical polish, earning “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews on Steam with a 96% recommendation rate. Built on Unreal Engine 4 rather than the notoriously unstable UE5, the game delivers smooth performance across a wide range of hardware.
A well-timed free demo, strong marketing campaign, and immense modding potential, especially for Eve’s outfits have all contributed to its explosive success.
The success of Stellar Blade mirrors that of Black Myth: Wukong, another single-player, non-live-service title from a non-Japanese Asian studio that defied Western ESG trends and garnered widespread acclaim. Together, these titles hint at a broader shift in the strategies of Korean and Chinese developers, potentially influencing studios like NEXON to follow suit.
The upcoming release of Vindictus: Defying Fate by NEXON has captured significant attention from gamers thanks to its bold embrace of sex appeal. With an array of revealing outfits and extensive character customization, the Korean action RPG is positioning itself to impress with a celebration of unapologetic femininity.
Despite its success, Stellar Blade hasn’t been free of controversy. Prior to release, players noticed in-game graffiti that, when combined with nearby signage, appeared to resemble a racial slur “HARD” displayed next to “R Shop” referencing the word “Nigger.” SHIFT UP responded quickly by altering the text to “CRIME,” but the unintended result, “CRIMER”—sparked further discussion.
More notably, SHIFT UP’s partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment resulted in a day-one censorship patch for the PS5 release. This update toned down Eve’s more revealing outfits and reduced the game’s gore effects, contradicting earlier assurances of an uncensored global release.
This sparked widespread backlash among fans, with petitions circulating accusing Sony once again caving to global “inclusivity” pressures. Months later, SHIFT UP restored the original, uncensored outfits as bonus content, though the reduced gore levels remained unchanged.
The PC release added further controversy, marking the first PlayStation port to include Denuvo, a cancerous DRM known for reducing system performance. Yet despite these setbacks, Stellar Blade’s reception has remained overwhelmingly positive, with players prioritizing its gameplay and core appeal over the missteps.
Tits and ass.
Sex appeal sells and Stellar Blade proves it. Its record-breaking launch, outperforming every single-player PlayStation PC port aside from the multiplayer-focused Helldivers 2, highlights a growing frustration with the industry’s current trajectory.
Despite the inclusion of DENUVO, players flocked to the title, signaling fatigue with AAA publishers’ increasing reliance on censorship, identity politics, and narrative frameworks that alienate core audiences. As game prices climb from $60 to $70 and now toward $80+, many are beginning to question whether the industry, in its current form, can sustain itself.
If there’s one thing corporations absolutely despise, it’s admitting they were wrong. They’d rather risk everything than own up to their mistakes. Meanwhile, widespread queer pandering has nearly pushed gaming’s core audience away, until Stellar Blade on PC came along, breaking that dam.
Stellar Blade thrives by delivering what fans truly want: bold, visually captivating characters and finely tuned gameplay. Its success disproves the idea that DEI and ESG mandates are necessary for a game’s success, giving smaller studios in Japan, Korea, and China a blueprint to choose creativity over ideological pressure.
The message is clear: players crave games that emphasize ATTRACTIVE visuals, engaging gameplay, and creative freedom rather than ticking corporate diversity boxes. Stellar Blade isn’t perfect, but in a market flooded with woke pandering, neopronouns, lesbian leads, and ideological overreach, it stands out by simply being bold, visually impressive, and unapologetically sexy.
Its success should be a wake-up call not only to Japan where big publishers have bowed to Western ESG pressures but also to Korea and China, where there remains cultural autonomy and resources to produce AA titles for gamers, not activists.
The era of assuming players will accept anything just because it’s “diverse” is thankfully coming to an end. Don’t expect a sudden change from corporations, thoughcompanies like Nintendo of America and Square Enix will certainly keep policing femininity and enforcing censorship.
Still, Stellar Blade shows there’s a huge, underserved market for games that are bold, and attractive, because sex still sells.
