Stella Blade Kim Hyeong-tae The gaming industry cannot rely solely on mobile MMOs.

Joint interview… “A work that asks questions about what humanity is in the AI ​​era.”

“When I started developing ‘Stella Blade,’ I was told, ‘If you make Lineage Like (a Lineage-type game), you can easily make 100 billion won a year, so why make that choice?’

However, works that changed the times were not always games that copied existing ones.”
Kim Hyeong-tae, CEO and general director of Shift Up, who created the highly anticipated Korean console game ‘Stella Blade’, said this in a joint interview held at IFC in Yeouido, Seoul on the 26th.

CEO Kim, a representative first-generation original game artist in Korea, served as an art director at NCSoft and made a name for himself as a famous game developer by supervising the overall art style and character design of the multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) ‘Blade & Soul’ released in 2012.

Afterwards, he founded Shift Up in 2014 and raised it to the ranks of unicorn companies (corporate value KRW 1 trillion) with mobile games ‘Destiny Child’ and ‘Goddess of Victory: Nike’, which utilized his unique artistic style.

‘Stella Blade’, which Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) released simultaneously around the world on the PlayStation 5 platform this morning (Korean time), was widely played in major countries including Korea, the United States, Japan, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France immediately after release. It was ranked in the top 10 in popularity at the Station Store.

At the press conference on this day, questions were asked about why Shift Up decided to pursue a single-player console game rather than a mobile MMORPG, which is the mainstream genre in the Korean market.

CEO Kim said, “I think the game market, users, and developers all need to reexamine what we enjoy doing,” and encouraged, “We will work hard to prove it, so let’s create a game that can be used in the global market together.” .

“If bananas only exist as one Cavendish species, they will be destroyed by an epidemic.

“If (the Korean game industry) only makes mobile MMORPGs, such a moment will come,” he said, adding, “I hope game developers will also help so that a variety of games can be made.”

When asked what kind of government support is needed to promote console games, he said, “Games are cultural products, so creative freedom is important.” There is a tendency to presuppose and deliberate.

“We need to give people the freedom not to self-censor,” he said.

Since this was my first 3D console game, there were many difficulties during the production process.

Technical Director Lee Dong-gi said, “The production team has a lot of know-how, but this was their first time developing a console,” and added, “Through collaboration with Sony, we were able to improve the quality of the game.

Also, since it is an action game where the frame rate (screen refresh rate) is important, we spent a lot of time optimizing it.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robots, which are hot topics around the world these days, appear as important subjects in ‘Stella Blade’.

CEO Kim said, “With the development of generative AI, many parts of humans are being replaced, and sometimes the work that one has built up becomes meaningless,” adding, “AI is replacing even elements that seem to never be replaceable. “It is a game that asks what will happen to us when the definition of is redefined and what choices you will make,” he explained.

Regarding the multi-ending structure chosen by ‘Stella Blade’, he said, “I wanted to allow users to make that choice.

“I believe that whatever choice is made, it will be accepted as correct history,” he said.

Relationships with famous domestic and foreign game developers were also mentioned.

Regarding the fact that XL Games CEO Song Jae-kyung, who participated in the early development of ‘The Kingdom of the Winds’ and ‘Lineage’, appears in a cameo in ‘Stella Blade’, CEO Kim said, “He is an excellent developer who left a big mark on the domestic game industry,” and “We communicate a lot on a regular basis.” “But when he came to our company, he asked, ‘Can I scan it and put it into the game?’ and he readily agreed.”

Also, regarding the meeting with ‘Nier Automata’ director Yoko Taro (橫尾太郞) and action game master Hideo Kojima (小島秀夫), “I was influenced by Nier Automata, so I thought it would be polite to meet the original author and talk to him in person.” He said, “I only briefly talked about game production with Director Kojima, but I hope we can have a more in-depth conversation next time.”

There was no specific mention of plans to release the next Stella Blade game or DLC (downloadable content).

Director Lee Dong-gi said, “With the patch on the day of release, the New Game + mode, which allows you to play by inheriting progress after the ending, has been updated, and other conveniences have also been improved. We plan to add a boss challenge mode in the future.”

CEO Kim said, “For now, our goal is to focus on this title and make the game perfect by complementing what users want.”

However, they expressed their strong will to continue the same innovations shown in ‘Stellar Blade’ in the future.

CEO Kim said, “Shift Up’s DNA is a game company that sells things you might like without ‘pretending to be real’.”

He added, “It was evaluated by the global market on an equal footing with leading games.

“We will continue to make games and show growth each time,” he emphasized.

/yunhap news