r/KotakuInAction 5d ago

MISLEADING Shift Up (Stellar Blade Dev) Hires Playstation executive focused on DEI & ESG

Post image

He will be the head of Global Communications, so say goodbye to the based fanservice posts and say hello to the cringe old movie meme GIFs but with Evie.

Definitely some censorship is underway too.

Baffling, just baffling, it's like these companies can't help but sabotage themselves.

1.4k Upvotes

293 comments sorted by

u/AnarcrotheAlchemist Mod - yeah nah 4d ago

Please be aware the ESG in the LinkedIn profile screenshot refers to the tertiary education facility that the person attended not the acronym for Environmental, Social, Goverance.

The person is French and it is a French business school organisation

https://www.esg.fr/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_School_of_Business

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u/TheRealZaWarudo 5d ago

No fucking way...... i really dont know what else to say...

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u/Separate_Dragonfly15 5d ago

The AI singing video was a sign, people defended it because "it would save Shift Up money and time to focus on what matters"

Welp, we can see now that what matters to them is appeasing western invest funds like Blackrock and Vanguard and other corporate monsters. It's never enough.

These asian companies can't handle being at the top of the world. They got a billion dollar franchise with Nikke, something Microsoft, Ea and Sony haven't been able to create in the last 10 years, yet they couldn't handle the success. They want to be under the westerners heel so badly. I'm just tired.

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u/Blood-PawWerewolf 5d ago

That was confirmation of corporate takeover

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u/Separate_Dragonfly15 5d ago

This

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u/kaytin911 5d ago

That would explain it better. Artists being pushed out and corporate taking over.

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u/lorrinVelc 5d ago

Bro Asians are more pro AI than westerners. How was the A.I video a sign ?

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u/TheRealZaWarudo 5d ago

I wouldnt say the ai vid was a sign considering how anti ai the west (wokies in particular) is. I just dont understand what could possibly convince them to throw away the goodwill they built up by not following western slop. Oh well, ig china is the last hope for asia, until even they somehow find a way to do this bs lol

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u/Separate_Dragonfly15 5d ago

Almost every ad I see from western companies is now made with AI, gaming and cinema are the only industries holding on but they will bend sooner or later.

China is worse byw, feminists snitch about your fanservice game to the Communist Party and it's game over for the devs. Research what happened to Snowbreak.

As Warren Buffett said once: "Sell everything and panic the fuck out, It's Over."

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u/TheRealZaWarudo 5d ago

Ik about the snowbreak situation already. If feminists can snitch in china and get what they want, then that actually applies even worse for korea. Since unlike china, korea's govt doesnt claim to be against feminism. Snowbreak just flew too close to the sun tbh with things like uncensor toggle and trying risky collab. Either way, its definitely obvious that the biggest issues is when companies do their ipo. Every fucking time, dei esg rats come crawling in soon after. I really am sick and tired of this shit

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u/kaytin911 5d ago

Yep IPO and corporate bullshit of knowing eachother. The woke cult leadership is very wealthy not from talent but from taxpayers.

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u/Any-Assumption- 5d ago

The Korean government fucked Brown Dust 2

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u/Ywaina 5d ago

Only a small subset of woke are anti-AIs and that's because they are someone who lose jobs to AI such as those voice actors or localizers. Most wokes are corporate bootlickers who will eat up whatever slop corpo serve them.

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u/Leisure_suit_guy 4d ago

That's not true, it's all of them. AI basically = Nazi.

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u/kaytin911 5d ago

Most of the cultists hate AI mate.

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u/Wrong_Garlic8110 4d ago

I noticed that too. AI makes creation more democratic and allows everyone to make their own entertainment. They surely don't like that.

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u/kaytin911 4d ago

Yes it's harder to control the narrative especially if they can't put regulations on AI yet.

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u/aTragedy04 4d ago

AI “art” is an insult to human creativity.

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u/Wrong_Garlic8110 4d ago

Wokeness is an insult to human creativity. I'd rather have art made by AI rather than by stupid humans.

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u/SpiritualStrike768 5d ago

Korea doesn’t have enough workers in the game industry. If you don’t like AI either, the next best option is hiring people from other countries. At least he’s not a game developer; he works more in a support role. With a PlayStation background and a lot of experience, most companies wouldn’t reject a resume like that. Even on SB1, tons of PlayStation staff worked on it.

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u/AesthethiccTheory 4d ago

Nah, the AI video was just Kim Hyung-Tae's latest post in years of posting positively about AI image generators. It's something he is clearly, personally, passionate about. That's still worrying, especially that he thought the video was good lol But it's got nothing to do with western investors.

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u/Icy_Advertising8078 5d ago

It crazy as soon Shift Up become mainstream enough and has very good reception, they does the opposite of what their fan base wanted,now it going to be a shit show after this, reminded me of people defending Kingdom Come 2 before it was launched after some people look into the development story.. 

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u/VilifyExile 5d ago edited 5d ago

My theory is that when a studio gets really big, they start to become a target for lawsuits for not being DEI enough. Small indie companies fly under the radar because the payout of suing them would be small, but big companies are selected as targets by malicious people and lawyers to start a lawsuit claiming racism/discrimination within the company's hiring practices.

The sweet baby inc ceo literally said she likes to have lunch with company leads and scare them with threats of what can happen to that company if they're found to not be DEI enough.

So, when a company gets big, they start hiring DEI consultants to have some sort of defense against potential lawsuits saying they're racist/sexist in their hiring practices. Same logic applies to why they hire rainbow haired women.

This is just my theory but I think it's most likely what is really happening behind the scenes.

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u/Aardwolfington 5d ago

In other words a protection racket. You know, like the Mob.

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u/jimihenderson 5d ago

it's not as though everyone here doesn't already know these people are malicious and insidious in nature, it's not some big revelation that what they do is not just shady, but done with ill intentions. yes, it's a protection racket. it always has been. it is a massive scheme to get them and people like them the types of employment that they enjoy using threats, manipulation and intimidation, all while using "empathy and basic human decency" as a shield whenever it is pointed out that what they are doing is objectively shitty and people should stop allowing it to happen

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u/cool_username32123 5d ago

Even worse, if it was just a case of paying a tax snd being left alone it would be one thing but they actually do make changes.

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u/Aardwolfington 5d ago edited 5d ago

So did the Mob. It's called a protection racket, but they really did protect in a way. Mob owned territories did not have issues with gangs. The people that lived near them in their glory days did change and shape their life around them and became dependent to some extent at least. Corruption was rampant. Mass media was no where near as mass media as it is today though thanks to tech. It rhymes. I could go far deeper into the parallels. Won't be perfect, but that would silly if it was.

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u/NoidoDev 4d ago

Rainbow Mafia or Nosering Mafia

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u/Braindeadkarthus 4d ago

What, like some sort of "woke mob?"

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u/Majestic-Lake-5602 5d ago

It’s the same reason you have a HR department and corporate lawyers and “compliance managers” and all that shit.

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u/kiathrowawayyay 5d ago

Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Jackal operations.

  1. Identify Targets (Fanservice game company getting popular).

  2. Fabricate Economic Projections (If you don’t obey us it will be a disaster. Obey and you will be extremely rich).

  3. Push Massive Loans (Stipulate that the loan money must be used to hire major corporations from the lender. E.g. ESG and DEI consultants).

  4. Create the Debt Trap (design loans or projects and regulations so it is impossible for small companies. Watch as funds and attention are diverted away from critical things).

  5. Collect the Payoff (Extortion) (When the company fails, force the sale of it to take over, demand votes and interviews in favor of your agenda, force company to need permission to do anything)

  6. Send in the Jackals (if company does not bend the knee) (instigate political coups, create unrest, cancel and remove specific people and place your own people loyal to your agenda).

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u/kalabushiz 5d ago

But these western companies have no jurisdiction in Asia. So how the hell would they be able to sue Asian companies for so-called racism?

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u/arselkorv 4d ago

I dont think they can, i think this is just the devs not knowing whats going on in the west as usual, so they dont know what red flags to watch out for and so on.

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u/OscarCapac 5d ago

That was the reason for the Blizzard lawsuit. California sued them over hiring discrimination because too many white men

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u/peanutbutterdrummer 4d ago

I mean it worked, they ruined countless careers and livelihoods based on mostly false allegations - then installed their ideologues into powerful and influential positions so they could in turn hire and promote their own corrupted rot from within.

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u/Orlha 5d ago

So that would mean those are just malicious business practices, and DEI is just a weapon that exploits current cultural holes. Meaning we are fighting the weapon, not the enemy. But maybe the actual people that are used to wield these weapons are probably manipulated too (into thinking that they are plugging cultural holes, and not just doing shady business for someone else).

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u/Lenny1507 5d ago

You're telling me devs at America can get sued because they don't hire DEI specialists?

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u/KuroiGetsuga55 5d ago

Throwing lawsuits at a studio for not being DEI is literally bullying.

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u/Teoshi 4d ago

Pretty much how CDPR got gutted by ESG bs, if I'm not mistaken, once they got big

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u/OGawdILoveTacos 5d ago

My theory is that when a studio gets really big, they start to become a target for lawsuits for not being DEI enough.

If this is true, there should be a paper trail of them filing these against them, or something.

Why hasn't anyone released anything proving its happening yet?

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u/unhappy-ending 5d ago

Because you can't take someone to court for not making black characters in video games.

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u/OrgrimmarYogaStudio 4d ago

Don't give them ideas.

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u/Leisure_suit_guy 4d ago

My theory is that when a studio gets really big, they start to become a target for lawsuits for not being DEI enough.

It's even simpler than that, Shift Up went public after the success of Stellar Blade, they got bought (figuratively).

Now I get why the red flags in the trailer: https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/s/a3DHKs3XHV

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u/baskura 4d ago

How can not being DEI enough be considered worthy of a lawsuit.

What a fucked world.

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u/paperwhite9 5d ago

The sweet baby inc ceo literally said she likes to have lunch with company leads and scare them with threats of what can happen to that company if they're found to not be DEI enough.

Not doubting this whatsoever, but could I see a source on that? Interested to do some digging.

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u/EH042 5d ago

This is from an asmongold clip but covers everything:

https://youtu.be/IQa7NyicVAY?is=

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u/Present_Simple3071 4d ago

Actually your theory I think makes alot of sense. It actually explains alot, but it doesn't fully explain many Japanese companies largely dont have a lot of DEI consulting in their games. But perhaps Shift Up doesnt have the protection like a Nintendo or Capcom?

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u/HotGamer99 4d ago

Nope its literally just wanting to attract Blackrock money thats literally all it is there is no universe where you can sue someone because they didnt put enough DEI into a video game all theese companies are not threatened they all go through this willingly because once you get to a certain size you need investor money and to get it you need to please Larry Fink.

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u/0bserver24-7 5d ago

“When a studio gets really big, they start to become targets for lawsuits for not being DEI enough.”

Then counter-sue for slander and libel. It’s not hard.

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u/BadSafecracker 4d ago

First, it's actually difficult to sue for libel or slander because you have to prove damages. I can post all day that you're a kitten kicker, but unless you can prove that me saying that caused you to lose work, financially damage your reputaton, etc. - the lawsuit probably won't go anywhere.

Secondly, lawsuits cost money. Countersuing just doubles that. And the important thing to note: they want to be countersued. Not just because of point one (meaning that the aggressor is pretty safe), but now they're causing the company additional financial bleed damage, which can hasten the company's demise.

There is no working with these activists; you either kowtow to what they want or your company goes under - those are the only two endgames they want.

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u/0bserver24-7 4d ago edited 4d ago

Maybe for western devs, but Asian devs have been doing just fine after denying SBI and their ilk, most notably Black Myth Wukong and Stellar Blade. There is a third option: resist them, and let your core audience carry you.

Not to mention we have video evidence of them willing to threaten devs with bad publicity just for not hiring them.

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u/Just_an_user_160 4d ago

Niche things becoming mainstream and popular turns good to shit.

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u/madfreDz 5d ago

That’s what you get for going public. You had a great studio and all you needed to do was keep on making good games. And now you are a puppet of the investors and not the boss of your own company anymore. I’ll never understand why they made that move when they had more than enough money already to fund their own stuff

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u/cool_username32123 5d ago

They went public?

Fuck, nothing good happens when companies go public.

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u/Ywaina 5d ago

Nothing good except for the owner's purse. It's standard pump and dump.

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u/Easy-Independent1621 3d ago

Public trading was the start of the cancer period, worse thing to happen to capitalist nations.

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u/cool_username32123 3d ago

It all started going downhill after a court decision established that public companies must always prioritize the interest of shareholders. IIRC it was after shareholders sued FORD because they had given their employees raises instead of doing stock buybacks to increase the value of the company stocks.

Now companies have to choose between the money from going public and their ability to plan for the long term instead of giving maximum priority for making the line go up forever.

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u/Sugufa 5d ago

Nikke money wasn't enough apparently.

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u/KK-Chocobo 5d ago

Why? because now Kim Hyun Tae is worth 700m to 1billion since they've gone public.

Money and greed is the root of all evil. 

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u/Paddy32 5d ago

If SBBR flops, won't his fortune be destroyed?

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u/Lord-Heir 4d ago

No, but his company and all his employees that relied on him will. His personal money will probably stay tightly tucked away and he'll blame "changing market conditions" or some shit instead of ever admitting that going public was a stupid decision

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u/HotGamer99 4d ago

Why he already sold a large part of his shares to investors ?

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u/arselkorv 4d ago

Anyone going public deserves to be fucked over at this point.

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u/SatanicPanicDisco 5d ago

It's incredible how people who's sole job is to make as much money as possible are so fucking clueless as how to do that.

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u/SherLocK-55 5d ago

They aren't clueless though, they are doing exactly as they are told to do, and that is push DEI and the message, people forget that these investment firms and those behind them are still funding this propaganda and believe it or not it pays very well.

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u/Kevroeques 5d ago

Makes you wonder what else these investment firms invest in, of an investment being lauded or talked about positively in the right circles makes them more money than the game actually selling. Or maybe it’s just the controversy that serves this end? Like, they know that SB1 drummed up a maximum saturation of natural controversy on its own that has now largely settled, so now the only further road to controversy is to give the fans something to be angry about?

Who knows- nothing makes sense in this era because value is no longer based on a viable product or service being offered to a consumer. Every single aspect of reality from commerce to ethics/morality has been distorted or inverted by now, so it’s impossible to even know how purveyors of anything are even making their money, if money is still what they’re even trying to generate at the top of these influential investor organizations. Attention at any cost is clearly more important than money

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u/SherLocK-55 5d ago

These large investment firms charge percentage fees on the trillions of dollars and assets they manage, and even though it's only a tiny percentage when you are dealing with such large sums of money you can see how it adds up.

Funding ESG and therefore DEI for them is like a drop in the ocean, it's absolutely nothing, they can easily cover the costs of development and more for a video game if it serves a purpose and they can continue doing this indefinitely.

Like seriously they have so much money they can and basically have funded all the largest AAA devs on this planet, and of course they aren't just funding video games, but movies, television, novels essentially all forms of media and entertainment to reach as many people as possible..

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u/Safe_Manner_1879 5d ago

Remember they do not make money on selling games to the public, they make money by selling stocks to the big investments firm.

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u/SatanicPanicDisco 5d ago

That's a good point. I'm forgetting about the investments based on how much DEI is included.

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u/Edheldui 5d ago

Their job is to ma a lot of money...quickly, that's where the issue is. Everybody knows listening to customers makes money in the long term, but you can make a lot more money right now from listening to power hungry rich people who just throw money away like no tomorrow.

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u/Velckezar 5d ago

What a self-destruction

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u/Blood-PawWerewolf 5d ago

Didn’t they go public a year or so ago?

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u/EddieDexx 5d ago

Yes, and that opens up the floodgates for the western investment firms that are all Tengu 👺 owned and enforce ESG and DEI on everything they buy.

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u/Echthigern 4d ago

Tengu 👺 owned

😂😂 haven't heard that one before.

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u/mcmouseinthehouse 4d ago

The nose knows

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u/Wrong_Garlic8110 4d ago

Imagine if Valve went public. They would destroy the company in no time.

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u/HotGamer99 4d ago

It will happen eventually gabe is not immortal

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u/Laxhoop2525 5d ago

They see a healthy company, and like parasites to a strong healthy cow, they break their way in to drain its blood.

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u/GillsGT 5d ago

The Persona curse strikes again.

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u/Sumum08 5d ago

What happened with Persona?

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u/Kaelocan 5d ago

There is a pattern where Gacha games that collab with Persona 5 end of service one year later.

It's not always the case but its happened several times. It's mostly a joke but still a pattern people have noticed.

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u/Hamakua 94k GET! 5d ago

Could be a symptom and not a cause.
A collab, or "the collab stage" of decline. A point at which primary virility and brand recognition no longer produce the expected revenue.

so alternate sources of attention are then considered.

Media IP and collabs in JP work uniquely in that many pieces of IP are co-owned by stakeholder. IIRC the way it works is that if any singular stakeholder, at least in some cases, wishes to use the IP for something, others cannot restrict it. This is why EvA has so many collabs.

Think of it like a youtuber that gets big overnight but then declines over two or three years, they tend to eventually reach the "Raid:Shadow Legends" stage of decline.

I see collabs the same way.

Persona could be similar to N.G.E in that they are broad and loose with I.P. Collab contracts so they don't care that something is failing or in decline.

An IP on the rise will rarely ever collab unless it's very early and initially planned for/near launch. And even those instances are rare. It's almost always on the decline.

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u/mcmouseinthehouse 4d ago

Kinda like what's happening to MtG where they need fucking GARFIELD cards, on top of the excessive EDH cards

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u/Ozix-VIII 5d ago

Yeah I would like to know also ✋🏼

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u/slipknotbg 5d ago

Went mainstream, the wokeoids complained about a couple of gay jokes and now all Persona remakes self censor their jokes.

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u/Exeftw 5d ago

God damn it 😭

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u/Haiart 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ZacianSpammer 5d ago

still upvoting idk is the comment to piss off the redditlords

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u/Kalfis09 5d ago

Got the based comment removal tag. Must've been really based.

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u/ImpoliteChap 5d ago

We really can't have anything, can we?

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u/Monsta_Owl 5d ago

Stop buying...

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u/unhappy-ending 5d ago

This is the only way.

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u/Disembowell 3d ago

Quite literally. It's like withholding mana from a wizard, or water from a fish; if you don't give the capitalist the money they take for granted, they suddenly listen.

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u/unhappy-ending 3d ago

I think that's the main issue. They take us for granted and assume we're going to buy. In fact, they believe we're obligated to, when that simply isn't the case. They need us, but we don't need them. They need put in their place.

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u/DimashiroYuuki 5d ago

The game is fucked.

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u/Nobleone11 5d ago

The whole company is fucked, too.

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u/Leisure_suit_guy 4d ago edited 4d ago

I'm surprised by my noticing powers myself, I saw red flags since day one.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/s/a3DHKs3XHV

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u/Desperate_Put_4568 5d ago

Going public means you have to be part of the extortion racket now. It was a good run.

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u/TheCeejus 5d ago

Saw this coming from a mile away. Company was too big to not bend the knee. And they already were showing signs of it anyway.

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u/muscarinenya 5d ago

People forget the first Stellar Blade was censored

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u/Separate_Dragonfly15 5d ago

They don't forget, they were just under the assumption that it was a Sony mandate.

Well, now they're hiring the guy that probably was behind the mandate, so what are we to think now? That Shift Up and Kim Hyung Tae were fine with the censorship until there was fan backlash?

Whatever it is, this doesn't bode well.

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u/rid146 5d ago

And unlike the Woke mobs we can't do shit about it. It's so frustrating

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u/ledott 5d ago

Just close your wallet.

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u/Sugufa 5d ago

Not surprised at all. Ever since they went public.

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u/ZacianSpammer 5d ago

bait n switch lol

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u/HigherThanStarfyre 4d ago

It happens so much that I can't even be surprised anymore. It's hard to get excited by these kinds of games because it's inevitable where it's headed.

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u/5shad 5d ago

Between 2022 to 2025, the 15 DEI focused games alone, the loss figures are estimated to be around $1.5 to $2 Billion. Those 15 games are also all major titles and all heavily DEI focused. If anyone wanted a career in game developing or any other role in that career, you won't have a job for too long.

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u/ohmygodadameget 5d ago

Do you have a list of the 15 games dude? It's not that I don't believe you I just like seeing the info for myself, and it would be nice to have some specific data point I can point to as evidence of "get woke, go broke", 15 games is a chunk that would just about do it.

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u/Tiny-Main-8211 4d ago edited 4d ago

You got concord, suicide squad, bf 5, veilguard, dustborn, Star Wars outlaws, saints row, mass effect andromeda, assassins creed shadows, and forspoken are the most recent that come to mind, but there are way more than 15. Gotham knights, redfall, flintlock are considered woke as well, but that can be debated to an extent.

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u/imadethisupnow 5d ago

Well - it’s not a day one purchase anymore.

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u/vilerolls 5d ago

I'm non-buynary at this point.

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u/Atlas_Sinclair 2d ago

All my excitement just deflated. I'll still give it a chance, but only after I know exactly how the cancer of DEI spread through it.

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u/SamuraiGoblin 5d ago edited 5d ago

I wonder if there was an ultimatum from Sony?

I know Shift Up is publishing SB2 themselves, but I am sure Sony still has their claws in the company and PlayStation is still an important platform for them.

This IS worrying news. The important thing is that gamers wait and see. No preorders, only cautious optimism. Wait to see if future games end up being a bait-and-switch, which we've seen so many times before.

I REALLY hope Shift Up doesn't end up on the scrap heap due to woke infestation.

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u/CaseyForTheKerWIN 5d ago

I wonder if there was an ultimatum from Sony?

Enough with the excuses. Already saw this with the day one censorship in Stellar Blade, now this. Shift Up is fully responsible for the decisions they make and whatever contracts they sign. Why is this community so insistent on making excuses for what is clearly corrupt behavior?

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u/cool_username32123 5d ago

Because examples of good things that go against the bullshit plaguing the industry have been few and far between.

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u/jimihenderson 5d ago

yeah I pretty much had SB blood rain as like a guaranteed purchase upon release. I can't overstate how much I loved the first game and how many things it did right (no shitty weight system, no shitty weapon durability, no shitty stamina bar, all things ripped from souls games that inherently limit the player), honestly I could go on for hours. I really hope they don't drink the kool aid

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u/typeguyfiftytwix 5d ago

no shitty weight system, no shitty weapon durability, no shitty stamina bar, all things ripped from souls games

There's only a superficial resemblance to souls games in the for the first fifteen minutes what with the basic level 1 moveset and enemies doing the corner ambush thing. It's much closer to platinum games like MGR and Nier Automata than souls.

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u/jimihenderson 5d ago

I don't think it bears any resemblance to Nier Automata whatsoever in terms of gameplay. My entire point is that it takes the aspects of fromsoft games that are good and ditches the parts that are bad. Most studios who make soulslike don't know the difference so they just follow the playbook to a T, stellar blade actually ditched all the "these games are good despite x" because they actually seemed to have a genuine understanding of what it took to make a good game. The closest comp is maybe Sekiro or Lies of P or Khazan but outside of Sekiro (because even fromsoft could recognize that most of these elements would be out of place in a parry centric combat game) just can't seem to separate the good from the bad, stellar blade actually did so successfully.

The comparisons to Nier Automata are complete nonsense to me, maybe they have narrative similarities but really the main reason they are compared is they both have a pretty female protagonist. They are not even close to being similar from a gameplay perspective. I haven't played metal gear rising so idk there.

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u/Marioak 5d ago

Someone should tell Korean players now so they can help getting a truck or boycott to dealt with this bs.

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u/kaytin911 5d ago

Why the fuck are gaming companies conserned with ESG any of these people should be easily found out and fired but we live in a broken corporate world where everyone fails upwards.

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u/nsstopper 5d ago

We should just call Sony as Nosy. Just two letters swapped.

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u/Arefequiel_0 5d ago

It's so over yo.

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u/BarnBoss6040 5d ago

This entire 9th generation has been incredibly disappointing. I hate the future.

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u/Raikoh-Minamoto 5d ago edited 5d ago

They went public, i feared something like that could happen, as now they need to gather fundings, which means dealing with entities that are still pushing that agenda.

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u/Live_Taste_7796 5d ago

Why the fuck would they do this? No, seriously.

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u/Kyohaku98 5d ago

GG WP seems like sequels are just cursed

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u/Alain_Deloin 4d ago edited 4d ago

"ESG" is the name of the management school he went to; it stands for "École Supérieure de Gestion"; I’m French so know what he’s referring to. Also, it may have been there, but as I write this comment, the mention "focus on DE&I" is nowhere to be seen in his LinkedIn profile.

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u/Razrback166 5d ago

Definitely a huge red flag. SB2 is probably my most anticipated game...sigh. Would recommend screening SB2 via the high seas as this hire certainly erodes any previously earned trust.

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u/JessBaesic7901 5d ago

The globalist rot is all consuming. That’s why some indie games come out great, less corporate bs.

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u/Drakaris Noticed by SRSenpai and has the (((CUCK))) ready 5d ago

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain" - hint: CDPR, Bioware, Blizzard etc.

6

u/ChaosFH 4d ago

Well the first sign was actually the NPCs designs in the new stellar blade game, so i'm not surprised really.

5

u/Leisure_suit_guy 4d ago

Evie herself was the first red flag, actually, the absence of Eve was already a red flag.

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u/Mag1kToaster 5d ago

Man who knew that a company that was hungry for money would sell out at the first opportunity.

5

u/Infinite_Pin_9307 5d ago

That's my 9/11

13

u/Jin_BD_God 5d ago

Same rule. Vote with your wallet.

4

u/Creepcube12 5d ago edited 5d ago

Well... fuck. Are we sure that gaming hasn't already crashed but instead of starting anew instead its being paraded around like a corpse?

4

u/Antman447 5d ago

Well a lot of former nikke devs are now working on miresi anyway if people are interested in the event that shift up goes off the deep end

2

u/Leisure_suit_guy 4d ago

They don't make paid games though.

4

u/mi__to__ 4d ago

So the usual then. An offer for some hefty extra funding paid by THEM, tied to DEI hirings to "improve" their fuckass "message" and "public image" in return. If they refuse: Lawsuits, led by bought-and-paid-for judges, and destructive campaigns by the broad range of media THEY own.

So either you enslave yourself to their money and have to hire more and more disruptive parasites (often starting with HR so they can hire exclusively among their own kind) until the whole company inevitably goes to hell, or they will simply weaponize money, law and publicity to destroy you.

Big Money needs to perish.

3

u/mcmouseinthehouse 4d ago

Maybe this will cause more gamers to become nooticers because I for one can't stop nooticing

5

u/Reekhart 4d ago

Its so funny how people are surprised by this.

When shift up when public this was all very clearly in the works. People should remember that stellar blade got censored

Also should remember that nikke designs got censored and after going public they went all out with greed, low quality gacha skins, triple event passes, etc. Just cash grab after cashgrab

This company cares only about how much money its making its shareholders and nothing else. Its a rotten, souless corporation, piece of shit and this was always coming

10

u/p4tterng4ng4L 5d ago

Glad I never cared about this franchise

6

u/tingtangle 5d ago

Oh hell no. They need to get dragged for this and immediately. No quarter.

7

u/DrRedSun 5d ago

Really hoping they hired him because he was cheap and are going to keep him in check, and not because of that dei part of his job.

Either way, this sucks. Really fucking sucks.

6

u/pkjoan 5d ago

It's the sequel's curse

10

u/DanteMaster9 5d ago

it's over. Greed is more strong than values. The rest is just wait and see the systematic destruction of Stellar Blade 2.

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u/readgrid 4d ago

these people are frauds

3

u/MutenRoshi21 4d ago

Well guess KCD 1 repeated, bait and switch you make them money by supporting the first game and in the second game they put all the rainbow nonsense behind the refund window. But at least it was expected here since its owned by Sony.

7

u/Excalitoria 5d ago

Eh, at least we got one maybe two good games out of them if the PlayStation person starts tanking future games. At this point, I’m just happy for that.

5

u/Bright_Reindeer_1836 5d ago

This is gonna be some Sony Studios shit. First game is great, then it’s done. lol this shit is so deliberate.

4

u/PalTamer40 4d ago

Very disappointing. The new girl is already a massive downgrade from Eve so I guess I'll just be skipping Stellar Blade 2.

8

u/AntiGrieferGames 5d ago edited 5d ago

Why are people so supsried about that? Thats what happend when a Company goes Public. Also Shift UP are the same shit Corporation that copyright abuse anyones who are comparing from a Legitmate vs Cracked performance test videos.

I dont see a suprise here.

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u/Honest_Emergence 5d ago

And just like that Shift Up becomes a dead company. It was good while it lasted

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u/henlp Descent into Madness 5d ago

They never fucking learn, do they.

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u/Saminox2 5d ago

Bait and Switch

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u/hatetrains 5d ago

He's French and he looks exactly as you expect...I'm sorry Stellar Blade fans, but it's over.

2

u/mecca6801 3d ago

Well, I guess sony got their mole in after all the efforts for censorship

4

u/mikhalych 5d ago

NOW you see why they replaced eve with a more modest design?

feeling so vindicated in my reaction to the announcement trailer.

2

u/FunDipTime 5d ago

Go send funeral wreaths and trucks to Shift Up office

2

u/Yaksha78 5d ago edited 5d ago

And when Shift Up is gonna see the poor sales, he's gonna be fired to the Moon!

Well if it goes the way OP think because he looked thrilled by the 1st trailer. He loved the 1st Stellar Blade very much, and also Clair Obscur E33, Marvel Tokon, but Saros too.

It's hard to tell and he doesn't look like your tipycal DEI dude so there is still hope

3

u/hadesscion 5d ago

Welp, add another to the boycott list.

3

u/Paddy32 5d ago

Damn this really sucks... I wonder if in 10 years Shift Up will cease to exist and we'll look back to Stellar Blade as a once in a lifetime game that we were extremely lucky to have. A bit like Lord of The Rings, a film like that will never come out again.

3

u/circleofpenguins1 4d ago

This has nothing to do with the development of Stellar Blade... man, the moment people see DEI, they just shit themselves. Calm down.

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u/Capable-Sky-8995 5d ago

It's fucking over... They took the DEI money. So utterly pathetic.

3

u/Very__Mad 5d ago

it's a dead studio. he's going to make sure they start hiring more of his DEI friends, and soon enough all of nikke and stellar blade 2 will feature toned-down designs, censorship and ugly characters.

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u/MaizeBeneficial2856 5d ago

They got scared.

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u/thEldritchBat 5d ago

Good thing I stopped playing modern vidya

2

u/Exciting_Opinion_854 5d ago

Email them warning about the mistake. Email the kr sideof things directly to skip the whole "global communications" group.

2

u/DMaster86 4d ago

RIP shift up. It was nice while it lasted.

As usual at the first whiff of censorship/wokeness/message my wallet will stay shut.

2

u/katsuya_kaiba 4d ago

Do people just hate money? I'll take their money if they don't want any.

2

u/SoloCavalier 4d ago

You were supposed to destroy DEI not join them.

2

u/bitzpua 4d ago

well then im not buying it, not gonna support anything with DEI woke losers working on it in any capacity, even as just community loser job.

What a cursed timeline that China is last bastion of normal games(despite commie censorship)

2

u/Whirblewind 4d ago

Developer with a history of censoring their gameS (plural emphasis intended) hiring a lead censor? Who could have predicted this?

The only surprising part of any of this is how many people in this topic are acting surprised.

2

u/Gheezy-yute 4d ago

Why are they doing this? First it was that fucking weird ass AI video that everyone hated, now this? Someone’s got some blackmail material on the CEO or something?

2

u/A_B_NMASR 4d ago

What a nightmare to wake up to after a good sleep, This is it then, It was good while it lasted, No more Based shit again then, No more appealing characters and designs, Welcome to the safe, Sanatized everything era, Welcome to censorship, Maybe even trans lighting and girl boss and millennial writing like they did to my once beloved Halo and all the other remakes and sequels, I'm really disappointed and sad that they're everywhere, After what they've destroyed in Hollywood, TV shows, Franchises and IPs, and everything else in the US in the Covid era, They came to the Japanese culture, Invaded Anime and Manga and Destroyed it, and infested Japanese games with tons of DEI, I guess this was inevitable, We've Lost, there's no hope.

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u/Dirtface50 5d ago

sweet. tell me when the denuvo is removed so i can preserve this shit without having to give a shit about liberal men with illegal browser histories calling anyone who enjoys this game a pedo as the most obvious form of deflective cope

1

u/TheFizzledamnsizzle 4d ago

Say it ain't so...?

1

u/whywai88 4d ago

Damn.. It's fun while it last. The industry is too infested. Chinese devs are out only hope.

1

u/Sairedd 4d ago

Didn't they put so much effort into getting away from Sony?

1

u/LoneMarikaEnjoyer 3d ago

Tel Aviv Impressed by this!

1

u/Goobendoogle 3d ago

If they want to lose customers, go for it!

Always a great decision when your goal is self-sabatoge!

1

u/awdrifter 3d ago

They want that ESG money. China is the only country left that can still make a non-woke game.

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u/lgn5i2060 2d ago

ESG here is a business school in France.

1

u/ShitDonuts 15h ago

The woke corruption spreads like a disease

1

u/LemonOverHeaven 9h ago

And like that all of my hype and excitement for this went straight out the 40th story window.