Stellar Blade game director Kim Hyung-tae has ruled out microtransactions from the highly anticipated PS5 game, and that even extends to post-launch content too. However, there is one exception. Shift Up’s CEO says that while anything produced in-house going forward won’t come at an extra cost to players, charging for third-party collaborations can’t be ruled out.
“We want to make it clear at this point that Stellar Blade will not require any additional expenses that gamers are not aware of beyond what they paid for the package,” Kim tells Ruliweb (translated from Korean to English via Google). “The only exception is if we create collaboration costumes with another company’s IP, those may be sold for a fee.” Consider your wallets spared beyond the initial outlay for what could be one of 2024’s best games – for the most part, anyway.
This is also great news for Eve fans everywhere who won’t be satisfied enough with the already-generous 30+ costumes bundled in with the new PS5 game at launch. Perhaps more significantly, Kim is hinting that he’s already thinking about bringing third-party IPs into the mix. Yes, we know you immediately thought about a NieR Automata costume for Eve reading this – there’s no shame here, we want one too.
At the beginning of March, Kim told Game Informer (via Noisy Pixel) that post-launch costumes would materialize in the PS5 exclusive at some point, but didn’t specify when they would arrive or if you’d need to pop open your purse strings for them. Fortunately, any first-party costume content won’t cost a dime, as Kim tells Ruliweb “free updates such as additional costumes are being prepared.”
The lack of microtransactions in Stellar Blade is genuinely refreshing, considering Shift Up’s gacha roots. Kim previously confirmed that launch costumes would all be “acquirable through gameplay,” so you won’t have to pay a penny for what’s already in-game. This was somewhat expected for the studio’s big console debut, especially as it will retail for $69.99/ £69.99 – the top price point for PS5 games right now. But considering the Nikke developer has had no qualms about introducing costume gacha into the hit mobile game, the question bore asking.
Currently sitting at number one on the Amazon best sellers list for PS5 games thanks to a mountain of pre-orders, Stellar Blade has more than managed to capture the attention of players. Its recent demo release has certainly contributed to this – this writer particularly enjoyed the challenging Stalker encounter. Its April 26 release date needs to hurry up, as we can’t wait to pilot Eve and her litany of outfits in their entirety.
For more news on the best PS5 games, check out the new Helldivers 2 Warbond that’s making an explosive entrance. Additionally, here’s when you can expect the FF7 Rebirth Can’t Stop Won’t Stop bug fix to arrive so you can finally earn its Platinum trophy.