Stellar Blade Will Sell Better On PC Due To “Higher Market Share”, Says Shift Up

Stellar Blade released last April exclusively on PS5 and sold over one million copies in just a few months. However, developer Shift Up has even higher hopes for the PC port, which is due sometime this year.

“In the triple-A game market, PC devices have a higher market share than consoles, so we expect the performance of the PC version to exceed that of the console version,” Shift Up said during its latest earnings report (as reported by VGC). “We are particularly observing trends such as the significant expansion of the single-player action game market in the Asian gaming industry.”

This is likely a reference to Black Myth: Wukong, which launched last August to an eye-watering 1.4 million players on Steam, a number that only continued to skyrocket until it landed an all-time peak of 2.4 million players, earning it the second-highest concurrent player count on the platform. There’s certainly a market for games like Stellar Blade on Steam, but a rocky PC port could bring those hopes crashing down.

Shift Up Is Trying To Avoid A Poorly Optimised PC Launch

Over the last few years, we’ve seen poorly optimised mess after poorly optimised mess launch on PC, especially from games that were originally console exclusives.

Last month, Spider-Man 2 launched on PC to a less than desirable Mixed review score on Steam, with many players criticising its “rough” launch. Unfortunately, this isn’t anything new for PlayStation, as The Last of Us Part 1’s PC port was so bad that it became Naughty Dog’s worst reviewed game of all-time. There’s a precedent for PS5 exclusives coming to PC, and it’s one that doesn’t instill much faith. But Shift Up is keenly aware of this, and hopes to buck the trend with Stellar Blade.

“We have identified and analysed both successful and underperforming cases of console exclusives released on PC, and we are preparing to release the game in a way that ensures continued success in the PC market,” Shift Up stated. To that end, it emphasised “optimisation, enhancing user convenience, [and] adding supplementary content,” with goals of ensuring Stellar Blade runs smoothly even on Steam Deck and other handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally.

Systems

Released

April 26, 2024

ESRB

M for Mature

Developer(s)

Shift Up

Publisher(s)

Sony Interactive Entertainment