Shift Up has released a music video starring the lead character of Stellar Blade: Blood Rain that probably would have passed largely unnoticed under different circumstances. The entire production was generated with artificial intelligence, however, and that decision has provoked a furious response from players.
Shift Up has unquestionably earned its place among the Asian studios worth watching closely after the success it has achieved in recent years. Stellar Blade performed exceptionally well, and although the Xbox Series X/S version has yet to arrive, with a Nintendo Switch 2 release still planned for this year, the South Korean developer already announced its sequel during Summer Game Fest 2026. There is currently no indication of when the game will launch, but the studio has nevertheless managed to become involved in the first major controversy surrounding Stellar Blade: Blood Rain. The dispute stems from an AI-generated music video that has led many players to question the team’s creative judgment.
Released after Shift Up had remained silent for a month following the sequel’s first trailer, the music video presents Evie as a K-pop star singing and dancing across locations inspired by the cyberpunk city shown in the original teaser. Alongside the sequences featuring Evie, the video includes supposed behind-the-scenes footage in which a fictional production crew wearing Shift Up shirts appears to work on the project. The intention is to create the impression of a production existing somewhere between reality and fiction, even though every part of the footage was actually produced using artificial intelligence.
Beyond those images, the video provides virtually no meaningful information about the game, its possible release window, or the direction of its story. The only apparent clue is a small reference to the CDDP, or Colony Defence and Departmental Police, a lore organization connected to Mother Sphere and the Orbital Colony. What has alarmed players is not the absence of new details, or even the actual subject of the video, but the revelation that almost all of the footage was created using generative artificial intelligence.
The South Korean studio makes no attempt to hide its use of the technology, stating plainly in the message displayed at the end of the video: “The video was created using Blood Rain materials regenerated with AI tools.” Rather than producing the music video directly with the game’s character models, animations, or environments, Shift Up used generative AI tools to transform its existing materials. Many players believe that this decision not only damaged the visual quality of the finished production but also diminished the contribution of the studio’s art team.
The chaos unfolding across social media demonstrates just how poorly the video has been received. YouTube comments include reactions such as “Did they really think they were ‘cooking’ with this AI garbage?”, while other users have responded with jokes including “Your RAM price just went up while watching this video.” The mood on X, formerly Twitter, is much the same: some Stellar Blade fan accounts have renamed the project “Stellar Slop”, while others have questioned whether the South Korean government’s multimillion-dollar investment and the profits generated by the first game were still not enough to fund a video created without AI. Game director and artist Kim Hyung-tae has also received extensive criticism after proudly sharing the footage, with numerous players responding that “you should have more respect for what you create.”
This was an embarrassment. How can you expect us to be hyped for this game when all you have promoted is AI? The flare and excitement simply does not replicate when project Eve was revealed. My hopes for this sequel and its protagonist is at an all time low.
— Shoes Ryona (@Jackel02841147) July 31, 2026
Shift Up Had Already Signaled Its Interest in Generative AI
As surprising as the direction of the video may appear, it is worth remembering that Shift Up CEO and creative director Kim Hyung-tae publicly supported the extensive integration of artificial intelligence into the studio’s development processes earlier this year. He claimed that these tools could allow “one person to do the work of 100”, although he insisted that adopting the technology would not result in layoffs. According to his argument, AI would instead increase productivity and help Shift Up compete against much larger Chinese and Western companies. Because of those earlier comments, many players now interpret this music video as the first tangible example of a strategy the studio had already outlined several months ago.
Source: 3DJuegos
