Developer Shift Up has quietly announced its acclaimed sci-fi hack-and-slash adventure Stellar Blade is getting a sequel – and it looks like it’s due to arrive before the end of next year.
Shift Up shared the news as part of its recent investor presentation, tucking mention of a Stellar Blade sequel away on a slide highlighting its “IP expansion” plans for 2025 and 2026. The studio’s free-to-play sci-fi shooter Goddess of Victory: Nikke got a mention, as did the mysterious “Project Witches”, but it’s Stellar Blade we’re here for.
Two key developments were listed under the Stellar Blade banner: firstly, a “platform expansion”, which seems likely to be a reference to the game’s arrival on PC next month – a release Shift Up has extremely high hopes for. And then next to that, as discreet as can be, a second blue box tagged with the word “sequel”.
Shift Up’s sequel announcement didn’t come with any specific details, but one interesting takeaway is the timeline the studio looks to be working on. According to Shift Up’s slide, Stellar Blade 2 is due to launch before 2027, strongly suggesting the developer is targeting a 2026 release – less than two years after the launch of the first game. That feels like a remarkably swift turnaround time for a fully fledged AAA sequel.
Hopefully, though, Stellar Blade 2 can live up to the standard set by its acclaimed predecessor, which was awarded four stars in Eurogamer’s review. “Stellar Blade has a fair bit of weirdness,” Jessica Orr wrote, “but its killer tunes and vibey, flow-state combat – plus a transformative hard mode – are enough to leave you entranced.”
PC players can pick up Stellar Blade via Steam or Epic when it launches on 11th June. A Complete Edition launches for PC and PlayStation 5 on the same day, bundling together the base game, various cosmetics for protagonist Eve, and more. PC players should note Stellar Blade is currently blocked in over 120 countries, which seems to have surprised Shift Up as much as everyone else. Over the weekend, the studio said it was “closely discussing the region lock issue” with Sony in the hope of resolving the issue before 11th June.