Shift Up expects Stellar Blade to sell better on PC than PS5, citing global success of Black Myth: Wukong among reasons
Shift Up has released its financial report for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024. Here’re the key findings about the South Korean company’s performance and its games.
Stellar Blade (Nier: Automata DLC)
- According to its Q3 earnings release (in Korean), Shift Up reached ₩58 billion ($41.2 million) in revenue, up 52.3% comapred to the same period last year.
- Operating profit was ₩35.5 billion ($25.2 million), up 120.4% year-over-year, while net profit fell 1.9% to ₩23.4 billion ($16.6 billion).
- Goddess of Victory: Nikke generated ₩34.2 billion ($24.3 million), accounting for 59% of the company’s total revenue. This is down 10.9% compared to Q3 FY23.
- Shift Up cited “somewhat disappointing” performance of the Evangelion collaboration as one of the reasons for the decline in Nikke’s revenue. The company expects a recovery in Q4 thanks to the special 2nd anniversary event.
- Goddess of Victory: Nikke, which recently received a publishing license in China, is expected to launch in the country in the first half of 2025.
- Royalties from Stellar Blade reached ₩22.5 billion ($16 million) in Q3, down 12.7% from ₩25.8 billion ($18.3 million) in the second quarter.
- Despite the expected decline, Stellar Blade continues to sell “steadily.” Shift Up plans to release more content updates and patches to enhance the value of the IP.
- The PC version will come out in 2025, with the studio expecting its sales to exceed those on the PlayStation 5 due to “Steam’s expanding share of the AAA games market” and the recent success of Black Myth: Wukong.
- Stellar Blade sold 1 million copies in its first two months, but its life-to-date sales remain undisclosed.
- Another project in Shift Up’s pipeline is an unannounced multiplatform RPG codenamed Project Witches. The studio plans to launch it after 2027 and share more details about the game in the first half of the next year.
- As of September 30, Shift Up employed 313 people. Its workforce has increased 9.4% year-over-year.
