Shift Up's AI-Generated Music Video for Stellar Blade Sequel Triggers Massive Fan Backlash

"Are We Deadass?" - Shift-Up promotes Stellar Blade 2 with AI-generated KPop music video featuring the game's main character

Stellar Blade: Bloodrain developer Shift-Up has promoted its upcoming action game with seemingly fully generative AI KPop music video. This music video, uploaded to the official Shift Up YouTube channel, shows Bloodrain's protagonist Evie singing an original song by Shift Up called 'Wanna be in Love'. She can be seen singing into a microphone, and exploring the sci-fi city we caught a glimpse of during its Summer Games Fest reveal trailer. At the end of the trailer, members of the Shift Up development team can be seen filming, chatting, eating, and high-fiving the fully AI generated character. This shouldn't come as too big a surprise. Earlier this year, Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade's director went all in on AI, saying the technology was essential for going up against large competitors like China. We don't know to what extent generative AI will be featured in the actual game, but this bullish perspective on the tech indicates it could play a role. As for the reception to this music video, the comments are littered with some confused fans. TheBlackCoatedMan6794 wrote "The CEO wasn't kidding, huh?", referencing the aforementioned statement. Hanzb.7438 chimed in, writing; "I mean...you could have made an animated loop with her actual model, you own the game and its assets after all...". Fashl offered their straightforward reaction as well, commenting: "Are We Deadass?". We still don't know when Stellar Blade Bloodrain will release, with initial estimates placing the launch some time before 2027. It's looking far more likely today that a release next year is on the cards, though again, we're still waiting for an official word from Shift Up on the matter.

Even Stellar Rain: Blood Rain Fans Hate Its AI-Slop Music Video

Kim Hyung-tae, the director behind the 2024 game Stellar Blade and the CEO and founder of its developer, Shift Up, has asked fans to "share [their] thoughts with" him regarding his new AI-generated music video featuring the protagonist of his upcoming game, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain-and, well, turns out the fans' thoughts aren't too positive. Shift Up released the "'Wanna be in LOVE' Feat. Evie" music video late last night, and, before anyone rushes to its defense, the team has been quite upfront about the fact that it's AI-generated slop. If you head over to the YouTube upload of the video, its description features the "Made with AI" and "Sounds or visuals were altered or fully generated" disclaimers. That being said, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that genAI was involved, as Evie's face is completely different between shots. But, in case you needed any more evidence, the AI-hallucinated text throughout the music video is borked beyond comprehension. The vending machine Evie stares longingly into features such text as "Preduet Spee," "Refiil Natice," and, my favorite, "Custemef Service." There's also a shot of Evie leaning against a bookshelf with dozens of indiscernible books, including one that appears to be Marcus Aurelius' Meditations-or, as it's spelled in the video, "Meaiiatations." Surprisingly though, considering Kim Hyung-tae's love of AI and the backlash to the AI-gen'd elements spotted in Stellar Blade: Blood Rain's reveal trailer at Summer Games Fest in June, fans of Shift Up's work aren't too pleased with the slop that its CEO has presented them with. "You need to stop using Gen AI to promote Stellar Blade," replied one user on X. "The backlash will be horrible for the IP and it will not be reverseable." "Who the fuck likes this garbage," replied another. "Shift ups music composition was one of their best qualities, this ain't it." "I seriously do not understand this guy's obsession with garbage when he's got such a talented team of actual creators who create purely with their sheer talent," stated Twitch streamer BasedLEDA. "What are you trying to prove with this slop??? I loved Stellar Blade and its beautiful soundtrack, then I got into Nikke and realized how amazing this guy's team is, only for him to push this slop on my TL. I'm afraid that Stellar Blade Bloodrain might be full of this bullshit. It's so over." But, again, while disappointing, it's still not massively surprising. During an interview in January, Kim Hyung-tae sung AI's praises, stating that "one person can perform the work of 100 people" by utilizing the tech. "We devote around 150 people to a single game, but China puts in between 1,000 to 2,000... We lack the capacity to compete, both in terms of quality and volume of content."

Stellar Blade: Blood Rain gets official music video full of AI slop, and fans aren't happy: "It's a slap in the face to your artists"

"You have such talented artists and programmers at Shift Up, please stop using this AI nonsense" Many fans are dragging Shift Up, the studio behind Stellar Blade and its upcoming sequel Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, through the mud for promoting its action game with an official music video generated by AI. Hot off Stellar Blade: Blood Rain's reveal earlier this summer, the South Korean studio today released a music video for a song called Wanna Be in Love, featuring the star of the sequel, Evie, seen singing and dancing in a futuristic city. The uncanny tell-tale signs of AI generation are confirmed in the video's small print: "This video was created using the Game resource from Stellar Blade: Blood Rain and regenerated with AI support." The ending also contains logos for Shift Up's Second Eve Studio and AI Labs, which fans were very quick to take note of. "You have such talented artists and programmers at Shift Up, please stop using this AI nonsense to stifle their work and give it a bad rep. The series doesn't need this dragging it down because this is all people unfamiliar with your games will see," one fan writes on social media. Another says, "You guys have the models and everything to create this without the slop..." That's a sentiment echoed across the player base: "You have all the in house resources and funds you could ever want to make this for real. It's a slap in the face to your artists and your fans to churn out lazy, ugly, subpar garbage when you employ some of the most talented people in the industry. No one wants this but you." Funnily enough, the music video concludes with outtakes of what looks like a real, human production crew 'filming' and high fiving with an AI-generated Evie, though it can be quite hard to tell after it's been filtered through AI generation. By and large, at least on primarily English-speaking online forums, fans of the first game are seemingly upset with how the AI-assisted video devalues the work of Shift Up's otherwise talented team - not to mention the ethical questions that naturally stem from using the tech. South Korea has reportedly adopted generative AI faster than most countries, and high-profile K-Pop music videos have been using AI generation together with real recorded footage with increasing regularity for a couple of years now.

Stellar Blade: Blood Rain Dev Shift Up Releases Entirely AI-Generated K-Pop Music Video Starring Evie and Pretty Much Everyone Hates It

Stellar Blade: Blood Rain developer Shift Up has sparked a backlash for releasing an entirely AI-generated music video starring protagonist Evie. "Wanna be in LOVE" Feat. Evie | Stellar Blade: BLOODRAIN was published to South Korean developer Shift Up's YouTube channel on July 31, as a K-pop twist on the upcoming action game. It shows Evie singing an upbeat pop song in Stellar Blade's future setting. But fans have pointed out a number of oddities in the video, including facial changes and visual inaccuracies, with some comparing it to the AI-generated adverts you often see before YouTube videos. After the music video ends, we see a mock 'making of' segment where the Shift Up crew pretend to interact with Evie. The video description confirms it was made with AI, and the small print at the end of the video includes the following description: "This video was created using the game resource from Stellar Blade: Bloodrain and regenerated with AI support." The logo for Shift Up's A.I. Labs department is at the bottom. The reception not only on the YouTube video itself but across the internet is overwhelmingly negative. "They really thought they were cooking with this AI slop," one person commented. "Deleting this from my memory, SGF trailer was amazing," another said. "Could've made an actual music video and paid the team another bonus check. Hopefully this was a one time thing and pray the game doesn't have AI cutscenes," one person wrote. "Your RAM just went up in prices while watching this video," another said. "Since there's no name for the singer in the description. I guess the song was made with AI as well?" pointed out another. It's a similar sentiment over on the Stellar Blade subreddit. "Such a f***ing shame man," one redditor said. "I love almost everything about this company and its games, but the damn CEO's obsession with AI is seriously bringing the whole thing down. You HAVE the talent and resources to make quality content. Despite all that, you decide to make slop like this. My hype for this game has been genuinely damaged with this s**t." That's a reference to Shift Up boss Kim Hyung-Tae, who is a vocal proponent of generative AI. In January, he said that without the use of AI, developers in smaller nations would struggle to keep up with studios in places like the U.S. and China. "We devote around 150 people to a single game, but China puts in between 1,000 to 2,000. We lack the capacity to compete, both in terms of quality and volume of content," Hyung-Tae said (via machine translation). Using AI would not result in job losses, Hyung-Tae insisted at the time, but instead make employees more valuable, as "one person can perform the work of 100 people." Hyung-Tae promoted the music video on X / Twitter, asking viewers to share their thoughts with the studio. He got his wish. "I think you guys have enough budget to animate a music video instead of using AI," one person replied. It would be a good way to actually advertise the in-game assets instead of faking content." "This is an absolute shame and disgrace to art," another replied. "You have one of the most INSANE budgets to develop your game without AI involved at 1%, but still, you produced this slop. And don't throw at me the 'we use AI to compete with US/China market,' that's a literal BS." "My thoughts are that this is s**t," another declared. "Shame that you are using AI instead of paying artists to animate this. Is this type of thing going to be in the game too? Cause if that's the case I don't want it now." In June, Hyung-Tae discussed the design of new main character Evie, highlighting the differences between her and the protagonist of the first game, Eve. Shift Up announced Stellar Blade: Blood Rain at Summer Game Fest with an eye-catching trailer that revealed Evie, a brand new main character who prefers to punch her way through enemies than take the slice and dice approach favored by her predecessor. The biggest talking point coming out of the trailer reveal was the design of Evie herself, with some expressing concern about her seemingly child-like face in the context of her more adult-sounding voice acting and body design. In an interview with IGN following the Summer Game Fest reveal, Hyung-Tae confirmed that Evie being Eve's junior was a conscious design decision. "Yes. She is younger. She's smaller in size. She's shorter than Eve," he said, "but she has a stronger personality and engages in much tougher battles. And she's actually part of a special squad that chases after a group of terrorists who cause terror attacks here and there in the city." Eve in Stellar Blade is a highly sexualized character, so we asked Hyung-Tae if he was worried that by using a young-looking character for Blood Rain, Shift Up was running the risk that some people would view Evie in a way the developer doesn't want. "If you actually play the game, you will not think that," he replied. "I definitely like how Eve looked in the previous Stellar Blade. But this time, Evie, not just her physical looks, but her personality, the way she talks, the way she engages in battles, all that will combine together, and you'll see that she's a very lovable character." Opinion on the use of AI in games continues to divide studios and their fans, with some vehemently against its use, while others claim it's an inevitable part of the future. Rockstar co-founder and former Grand Theft Auto writer Dan Houser recently likened AI to mad cow disease, but the CEO of Genvid -- the company behind choose-your-own-adventure interactive series like Silent Hill Ascension -- has claimed "consumers generally do not care" about generative AI in games, and stated that: "Gen Z loves AI slop." EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said AI is "the very core of our business," and Square Enix recently implemented mass layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to be "aggressive in applying AI." Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].