Gaming News The studio of this PS5 exclusive, already criticized for the sexualization of its heroine, would have fired two openly feminist people
A true star of Sony’s latest State of Play alongside Death Stranding 2, Stellar Blade is ready to capture the hearts of PS5 gamers. However, the game’s upcoming release could be marred by a controversy that resurfaced today.
A problematic studio?
It was during Sony’s last State of Play Starblade amazed us. Formerly called Project EVE, the software from South Korean studio Shift up has been backed by Sony and is now preparing to release exclusively on the Playstation 5. On paper, Stellar Blade looks like a really promising title, with explosive action sequences, an original science fiction universe and stunning graphics.
But now that the project has been presented in more detail, a controversy from last year has resurfaced. According to Twitter/X users, the Shift Up studio has fired two employees because of their feminist activism. These employees allegedly criticized the studio for this Fan service from Stellar Blade during a meeting with Tencent representatives and were reportedly fired for their comments.
Fun fact that the person who fired Shift Up was a contractor who happened to be a feminist and complained about fan service, and this happened during Tencent’s shareholder negotiations pic.twitter.com/5KOzrPTKKg
— Haru47 ☭⃠🇩🇪🇲🇽🇺🇸🇯🇵 New game developer (@NotHaru47) August 24, 2023
A recurring controversy
This is not the first time similar allegations have been made against Shift Up. Back in 2022, the studio allegedly harassed an employee and deleted her work before firing her because of a feminist hashtag used on Twitter. This case would ultimately be linked to the Megalia movement, which would be supported by the Shift Up fired employee.
In South Korea, Megalia was a feminist activist group considered a “symbol of popular feminism in the country.” Although the group originally used satire and irony to poke fun at the misogyny that permeates South Korean society, Megalia would actually have welcomed into its midst people with more extreme ideas, spreading deceitful messages and inciting hatred against men. This would therefore partially explain the dismissal of this Shift Up employee. Currently, it is difficult to distinguish the truth from the false, especially when we know that Megalia disappeared in 2017. Shift Up has not yet officially responded to these allegations.
