Stellar Blade studio CEO Hyung-Tae Kim has defended Shift Up’s controversial AI-assisted music video after it sparked widespread backlash from fans. Just two years after the launch of Stellar Blade, Shift Up has already announced its follow-up, Blood Rain, featuring a new protagonist.
Shift Up recently released a promotional music video for Stellar Blade: Blood Rain titled “Wanna be in LOVE” feat. Evie on July 31. The unusual video featured the new protagonist, Evie, singing and dancing through a futuristic city in a K-pop music video style, even interacting with the production crew. Its closing disclosure states that the video used game resources from Blood Rain that were regenerated with AI support, and fans quickly voiced their disdain for the project. Many viewers objected to the music video’s use of AI, highlighting inconsistent costume details, distorted objects, and several visual irregularities commonly associated with generative images. Some fans argued that releasing this video diminished the work of human developers and creatives responsible for Stellar Blade’s otherwise polished character designs and presentation.
Stellar Blade Studio Defends AI Video as Backlash Continues
Responding to the criticism on Twitter, Shift Up CEO Hyung-Tae Kim emphasized that Stellar Blade: Blood Rain‘s Evie was created “from head to toe” by Shift Up’s artists and character modelers through more than a year of dedicated work. According to the executive, AI did not independently invent the character, but instead rendered and presented her using the “data, designs, and craftsmanship” produced by the studio’s artists. Kim asked fans to consider the music video with that distinction in mind, seeking to reassure fans that Evie’s underlying design remained the product of human effort and creativity. However, the studio head has not answered questions about why it would use AI rather than hiring artists and animators, or what AI workflows were used to produce the finished product.
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Kim’s explanation has done little to end the backlash, largely because many critics of the video were not claiming that AI originally designed Blood Rain’s Evie, but rather that they dislike the quality of the final product. Fans have objected to the entire notion of processing a carefully developed character through generative AI tools that allowed her outfit, appearance, and surrounding environment to change inconsistently and considerably throughout the music video. If anything, fans find that Evie being human-created makes the whole situation much more frustrating, as Shift Up already possesses the models and artistic resources to produce a traditional animated promotional video but instead chose to use AI.
Overall, the Stellar Blade studio CEO’s comments have created more of a communication problem for the studio than anything else. By focusing on the human effort behind Evie’s original design, the CEO answered a narrower question than many critics were asking about in the final video. Since the beginning, the controversy has primarily been driven by the project’s inconsistent presentation and the perceived substitution of original creative work, rather than uncertainty over who designed the character. As a result, the response seems to have given dissatisfied fans little reason to change their position and instead provided the controversy with another round of attention.
The lasting effect of this AI music video may depend on how Shift Up decides to present Stellar Blade: Blood Rain from this point forward. One good conventional gameplay trailer or polished character showcase could quickly return the conversation back to the same discussions about the new main character, combat, and futuristic setting that fans were enjoying just weeks ago.
- Released
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April 26, 2024
- ESRB
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M for Mature
- Developer(s)
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Shift Up
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment
