The discontent around certain choices made by the Korean studio Shift Up in Stellar Blade has reached a new milestone, with fans taking radical measures to show their discontent.
Willy-nilly, Stellar Blade now suffers from somewhat abusive pre-launch communication around EVE, the character we play. Some players have even gone so far as to say that they were deceived and victims of “false advertising”.
Stellar Blade hit by censorship case
Released on April 26 exclusively on PS5, Stellar Blade has had a very successful launch overall. In fact, more than a million copies were sold in 24 hours. However, this figure may have since been reduced somewhat. During the weekend, some players showed their anger at an allegation of censorship carried out on some EVE outfits. Particularly upset, they even gathered under the banner of a petition. This brought together nearly 50,000 signatories. This is to draw Shift Up’s attention to their grievances.
Faced with an apparent silence from the creators of Stellar Blade, some dissatisfied people have taken the lead. They therefore requested a refund for the digital version of the game. To justify this, the reason given was “false advertising”. In particular, they targeted an outfit in the form of a swimsuit. When the game launched, it showed more skin, but was changed following a patch. According to the director of Shift Up, this new version would actually be the “final version” of the costume. He also spoke out regarding the controversy surrounding censorship. “ I am aware that this answer will not be enough to convince our users. An internal discussion is underway “.
A game victim of bad publicity
Such a controversy could probably have been avoided. For this reason, the communication around Stellar Blade should not have put so much emphasis on EVE. Beyond the overly objectified plasticity of its female protagonist, the game has many other cards up its sleeve to please players (especially fans of NieR: Automata). Whether it’s its finely crafted gameplay or its convincing artistic direction, very typical of post-apo/cyberpunk, the title of Shift Up has many assets to convince. Unfortunately, he pays the price for a few blunders, such as the unfortunate combination of two graffiti which could be considered racist.
Let’s hope that Stellar Blade will quickly move past the controversies surrounding it. We also wish Shift Up and the publisher of its next games not to repeat the same mistakes. It seems that the Korean studio already had plans for another game, while Stellar Blade had not yet been released. For now, we only know that it will not be a PlayStation exclusive. Whether it is a sequel to the adventures of EVE or not, the mystery remains for the time being, despite many similarities between the two projects.