Stellar Blade: Blood Rain Technical Director Addresses Controversial AI-Generated Music Video

Shift Up CTO and Stellar Blade technical director DongKi Lee has addressed fan backlash regarding a controversial, AI-generated music video released by the studio. Released on July 31 on the official Shift Up YouTube channel, the video featured Stellar Blade: Blood Rain protagonist Evie and quickly garnered widespread dissatisfaction from many fans.

In a new interview with The Gamer, Lee explained the studio's rationale for sharing the project. “The reason we revealed that music video was to show more of the beauty of Stellar Blade: Blood Rain. We wanted to show the world view and the character Evie. We just wanted to show a little more of each, and we did that as part of the content,” Lee said. He added that the developers are listening to player comments and concerns, noting that the studio plans to establish a clear line between actual game-related material and what they classify as “experimental content,” such as the media used in the music video.

When questioned about Shift Up's broader stance on artificial intelligence, Lee stated that while the technology holds significant influence on modern game development, the studio intends to use it strictly to support developers' core creativity, skills, and know-how. He concluded that AI should function purely as a tool to help build a good game.

The release of the video previously drew separate remarks from Stellar Blade game director and Shift Up CEO Hyung-tae Kim. Kim maintained that the AI utilized for the video did not generate the heroine Evie from scratch, but instead rendered her using a full year's worth of preliminary modeling and artwork completed by Shift Up artists. However, that explanation failed to appease critical fans who expressed frustration over human animators appearing to be bypassed during the process. Stellar Blade: Blood Rain remains currently in development.