Stellar Blade developer Shift Up is no stranger to controversy, but even some of its most ardent defenders are unhappy with the company’s latest move. Shift Up’s official YouTube channel released a music video for the song “Wanna be in Love,” featuring the upcoming Stellar Blade: Blood Rain’s protagonist, Evie. The problem is that the trailer was created with generative AI.
The poorly lip-synced video, which features Evie wandering through a weightless futuristic city, has the uncanny sheen of AI slop. If there’s one detail the trailer stayed true to regarding Shift Up’s “signature style,” it’s the gratuitous closeups of Evie’s butt. The developer disclosed in the video description that the trailer was made with AI, specifically that “sounds or visuals were altered or fully generated.”
Notably, there are a few moments in the music video that seem to be playing fast and loose with copyright law. At close to two minutes in, Evie grabs a keychain with a KPop Demon Hunters logo. At the end, we see a Sony camera. While the original Stellar Blade was published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, it’s unclear if Sony authorized these references to its properties. Stellar Blade: Blood Rain is being published by Shift Up instead of the PlayStation maker.
The YouTube comment section gives a pretty immediate look at how fans of the series feel about the AI trailer. “Are we deadass,” the top reply reads. “They really thought they were cooking with this AI slop,” another says. “Your RAM just went up in prices while watching this video.”
Both players and the general American public are increasingly turning against generative AI technologies out of a combination of ethical, environmental, and job-loss concerns. A Bentley University-Gallup survey showed that 39 percent of respondents believe AI does more harm than good, against only nine percent who said the opposite.
As for the video game industry in particular, many players are concerned about the increase in AI slop and how the growth of AI data centers is negatively affecting hardware prices. The production of these data centers has led to a shortage in RAM, driving massive increases in gaming hardware prices. At this point, all modern consoles cost more than they did at launch; come August, the base Xbox Series X will go for $300 more than it did when it came out in 2020.
As for Shift Up, this isn’t the first controversy around Stellar Blade: Blood Rain. The game’s announcement trailer caught flak for its gratuitous sexualization of its protagonist Evie, who many players believe looks dramatically younger than the previous game’s main character.
Before Stellar Blade, Shift Up was best known for the aggressively horny gacha game Goddess of Victory: Nikke.
