Shift Up has begun the development of a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Stellar Blade, and has also gifted the new console to all of its employees.
Stellar Blade developer Shift Up recently held an event (via PlayForum) to celebrate its recent sales milestone of 3 million copies. Following the game’s success on PS5 and PC, developer Shift Up has officially started work on a Nintendo Switch 2 port. This step is part of the company’s efforts to accelerate its multi-platform-based IP expansion strategy.
The report mentions that Shift Up recently acquired official devkits for the Nintendo Switch 2, and is said to already started preliminary work on the Stellar Blade port. The devkits will allow the development team to verify the hardware structure and operating environment and to perform optimization and compatibility work tailored to the platform’s specifications. ShiftUp has begun designing content that reflects the Nintendo Switch 2’s low-power architecture, unique portable interface, and mobility-centered user experience, based on the graphic implementation capabilities, sophisticated action systems, and platform-specific optimization experience gained during the development of the PS5 and PC versions of Stellar Blade.
To commemorate the sales of ‘Stella Blade’ surpassing 3 million copies, Shift Up gifted a Nintendo Switch 2 to each of its 300 or so employees. This is also seen as a strategic measure to both reward the organization and motivate development.
One of the likely factors that led to Stellar Blade achieving an unusually high number of concurrent Steam players and selling over 1 million copies in just 3 days since its release is the ability to create and use modded content on PC. This is especially true for outfits, given the popularity of DLC costumes on PS5. However, since the Nintendo Switch 2 doesn’t support mods, the primary selling point will be in how Shift Up is able to leverage the platform’s unique features.
