Stellar Blade Devs Officially Address AI Music Video "Concerns"

Stellar Blade Director Admits Blood Rain's AI Music Video Caused "Concerns" Published Sep 1, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 2,500 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, got context around some AI drama, and revealed how Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on more than one occasion. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Sign in to your TheGamer account Last month, Stellar Blade studio Shift Up released an AI-generated video, designed to show off the title's in-development sequel, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain. The video was a mess and received the vitriol it deserved from the gaming community, both inside and outside Stellar Blade's fandom. At this year's Gamescom, we got to sit down with DongKi Lee, CTO and Stellar Blade Technical Director at Shift Up. While the majority of our chat centered on the original game's Switch 2 port, I asked Lee if he would like to address the situation. He confirmed that there were "concerns" and that the studio was taking measures to separate its different types of content. The Shift Up Team Saw The "Concerns" Around Stellar Blade: Blood Rain's AI-Generated Music Video The Blood Rain music video didn't look good. Evie's face changed between shots, the environment was uncanny, the frame rates were choppy, and the music itself was just plain bad. Naturally, it bombed with fans, so at this Gamescom, I asked the studio's chief technical officer what they were thinking. "The reason we revealed that music video was to show more of the beauty of Stellar Blade Blood Rain," Lee tells me. "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. "But then we do take seriously and importantly what the fans have been saying, and the concerns they have been expressing about the music video, and from now on we definitely want to make a clear separation between the two, like game-related content and what we would call experimental content, like what we are experimenting with." This video bleeds into wider concerns about AI and the creation of video games. Almost a quarter of games revealed during Gamescom's Opening Night Live openly admitted to using AI, and one studio even ditched a writer, getting the technology to do her work. I asked Lee what Shift Up's stance on the tech was. "AI has a lot of influence and impact on game development. But when we are using certain technologies or tools, what's important is the direction and purpose they serve. It needs to be used in a way that supports the developers' creativity, know-how, and skills," he says. "It should be used as a tool. That's the direction, and its purpose would be to make a great, high-quality game." Our full interview with the technical director will be up tomorrow, and you can check out our preview of the Switch 2 version of the game right now. Systems Released April 26, 2024 ESRB M for Mature Developer(s) Shift Up Publisher(s) Sony Interactive Entertainment Engine Unreal Engine 4 Genre(s) Action RPG