Shift Up addresses fan concerns about Stellar Blade PC release

GAMING NEWS Rine Ikarus - May 19, 2025, 7:42 PM

The PC version of Stellar Blade is set to launch via Steam on June 11, bringing a host of PC-specific features including AI upscaling through Nvidia DLSS 4 and AMD FSR 3, unlocked framerates, ultrawide display support, and higher resolutions.

The announcement of Stellar Blade for PC has been met with significant enthusiasm. The game has already climbed to #1 on Steam China’s best-sellers list and currently holds the #2 spot globally on Steam. However, the excitement has been somewhat tempered by a major issue—region locking. Users from over 100 countries have reported being unable to pre-order the game, many of which are in regions where Sony’s PlayStation Network is not officially supported.

SHIFT UP Responds to Region Lock Concerns

SHIFT UP has issued an official statement addressing the community's concerns regarding the PC launch of Stellar Blade.

️We are closely discussing the region lock issue with the publisher and are doing our BEST to resolve most of it as soon as possible.
️As shown in the test chart below, the DRM has been hard tuned to maintain the same average frame rate, with even higher minimum frames in… pic.twitter.com/JDimvKiKte
— StellarBlade (@StellarBlade) May 16, 2025

While a detailed explanation was not provided, the developer confirmed that they are "closely discussing the region-lock issue" with publisher Sony and are working to "resolve most of it as soon as possible." They also reassured players that connecting to PSN will be completely optional and not required to play the game on PC.

In the same statement, SHIFT UP addressed the use of DRM—technology often criticized for affecting performance. To ease concerns, the team shared benchmark data showing that the DRM has been “fine-tuned to maintain the same average frame rate, and even achieve higher minimum FPS in some cases.”

Additionally, modding support will be fully enabled without any restrictions—a move that has been widely praised by the PC community.

Despite early controversies, Stellar Blade has already proven to be a massive success for SHIFT UP, becoming the best-selling game in North America in April 2024 and shipping over one million units by June. If the region-lock issue is resolved in time, Stellar Blade is poised to become another major PC hit for the Korean developer.

Use our price comparator tool to find the best deal for Stellar Blade, and don’t forget to pre-order before its official PC launch on June 11.