Shift Up’s CEO Responded to the Blood Rain Backlash. It Didn’t Help.

Spiel: Stellar Blade: Blood Rain  |  Entwickler: Shift Up  |  Herausgeber: Sony Interactive Entertainment  |  Content: AI-generated music video  |  Published: July 31, 2026

Shift Up released a fully AI-generated music video for Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, and fans reacted badly. The video features new protagonist Evie performing a K-pop song. Her appearance shifts noticeably from shot to shot, a telltale sign of generative video tools.

Shift Up CEO Kim Hyung-tae has since responded to the backlash. His explanation has done little to calm fan frustration.

What’s Actually in the Video

The video, titled “Wanna Be In Love” Feat. Evie, went live on Shift Up’s official YouTube channel. Kotaku noted that beyond Evie’s shifting appearance, the video is riddled with garbled AI text. A vending machine displays gibberish like “Preduet Spee,” and a bookshelf features a copy of Meditations misspelled as “Meaiiatations.”

The roughly three-and-a-half-minute video shows Evie singing and dancing through the neon-lit city from the game’s Summer Game Fest reveal trailer. It then cuts to staged behind-the-scenes footage of Shift Up staff directing her on a virtual set. YouTube’s own description flags the video as made with AI.

Why This Isn’t Coming Out of Nowhere

Kim has spoken publicly about generative AI before. Earlier this year, at a South Korean economic briefing, Kim described AI as an essential tool for competing against larger markets like the United States and China. He argued the technology wouldn’t cost jobs, since it would let one person accomplish the work of a hundred.

• The core concern: Fans worry the video previews the quality of AI-assisted work that could end up in the actual game
• What’s confirmed vs. not: There’s still no public confirmation that Blood Rain itself will use generative AI for in-game characters, environments, or audio
• The missed opportunity: Stellar Blade sold well enough that commissioning a real K-pop artist and in-house animation would have been financially realistic

Kim’s Response Hasn’t Settled Things

Kim addressed the backlash directly on social media. He argued that Evie herself was hand-designed by Shift Up’s artists over more than a year of work. According to Kim, the AI in the video only renders her movement, rather than creating her from scratch.

That explanation hasn’t landed well. Critics point out that the AI system animating Evie still draws on enormous, uncredited training data. This is true regardless of how her original design was created. Unless Shift Up confirms its AI was trained only on its own assets, the backlash is likely to continue.

Part of a Bigger Pattern

Blood Rain isn’t an isolated case for Shift Up. The studio has faced separate controversy this year over Evie’s character design. Generative AI backlash has also followed several other high-profile games recently.

That combination leaves Shift Up with less goodwill to spare. This is true even given Stellar Blade’s strong critical and commercial reception.

Fazit

A single bad music video wouldn’t normally define a game’s marketing cycle. This one lands at a genuinely sensitive moment for Shift Up, though. Kim’s defense, that Evie’s design is human-made even if her movement isn’t, addresses a technicality without addressing why fans are actually upset.