Shift Up, developer of Stellar Blade and the upcoming Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, released a music video on its official YouTube channel for a song called "Wanna be in Love," featuring the sequel's protagonist Evie singing and dancing in a futuristic city. The video's description disclosed that it was made with AI, stating sounds or visuals were "altered or fully generated," and it also displayed logos for Shift Up's Second Eve Studio and AI Labs at the end.
Multiple outlets noted visible signs of AI generation, including poor lip-syncing, Evie's face changing between shots, and garbled on-screen text such as "Preduet Spee," "Refiil Natice," "Custemef Service," and a book titled "Meaiiatations" instead of Meditations. The video also ends with what appears to be footage of a real human production crew filming, chatting, and high-fiving the AI-generated Evie. Separately, the video features a keychain bearing the KPop Demon Hunters logo and a shot of a Sony camera, though it is unclear whether these references were authorized, especially since Blood Rain is being published by Shift Up rather than Sony, which published the original Stellar Blade.
Fan reaction across YouTube comments and social media has been largely negative. Comments included "Are we deadass," "They really thought they were cooking with this AI slop," and remarks that the video was a "slap in the face" to Shift Up's own artists and programmers given the studio's talent and resources. Others said Shift Up's music composition had been one of its best qualities and expressed worry that Blood Rain itself might contain similar AI-generated content.
Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade director Kim Hyung-tae had previously spoken favorably about generative AI in a January interview, saying that "one person can perform the work of 100 people" with the technology and citing competitive pressure from China, which he said puts far more people on individual games than Shift Up's roughly 150-person teams. Kim reportedly asked fans to share their thoughts on the new video, and outlets noted this bullish stance suggests generative AI could play a role in the actual game, though the extent remains unknown.
The backlash comes amid broader public skepticism toward generative AI: a Bentley University-Gallup survey found 39 percent of respondents believe AI does more harm than good, compared to nine percent who said the opposite. Within gaming specifically, concerns have grown over AI-generated content alongside rising hardware prices linked to AI data center production, which has contributed to RAM shortages; all modern game consoles now cost more than they did at launch, with the base Xbox Series X set to rise by $300 over its 2020 price in August.
This is not the first controversy surrounding Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, whose announcement trailer previously drew criticism for what many players saw as gratuitous sexualization of Evie, who some felt looked notably younger than the protagonist of the original game. Shift Up was previously best known for Goddess of Victory: Nikke, a gacha game noted for its sexualized content, and South Korea has reportedly adopted generative AI faster than many countries, with K-pop music videos increasingly blending AI generation with real footage in recent years.