Not Astro Bot Or Helldivers 2: There’s A Third PlayStation Contender That Challenges Black Myth: Wukong for GoTY

There’s no denying the fact that 2024 has been a phenomenal year for gamers. Hits like Palworld and Black Myth: Wukong have made massive waves by appealing to broad audiences across a number of different platforms, while highly-anticipated console exclusives such as PlayStation’s Astro Bot and Xbox’s Hellblade 2 have managed to live up to the loft expectations players had for them leading to their launch.

With The Games Awards 2024 fast approaching, many gamers are surely speculating which of these hits will take home the coveted Game of the Year title. Historically, the award has always been snatched by the game, which has had the strongest critical reception and made the most impact in the industry. However, this time around, there’s an underrated title that could prove to be a challenge for all the big hits, and that’s Stellar Blade.

Released this past April as a PS5 exclusive by Shift Up and Sony, Stellar Blade is an action-adventure title where gamers must take control of a character called Eve. She must save humanity from extinction by fighting against monstrous creatures.

Right from the get-go, the game was surrounded by various controversies due to its portrayal of Eve and the censorship. Despite all that, the title was-well received by the public, and secured a spot as the top-selling title during its launch period on PlayStation Store.

Stellar Blade is smoothly animated and challenging, and it brings a healthy amount of enemy variety while featuring a lot of depth. You could say its combat is derivative, but it closely resembles the best of games such as Seikro: Shadows Die Twice.

Even though it was a phenomenal game, it was overshadowed by multiple other releases such as Black Myth Wukong, and Space Marine 2 which was quite disappointing to see considering the effort that went into producing this masterpiece.

That doesn’t change the fact that Shift Up brought something entirely new to the table with Stellar Blade and pushed the limits of what an RPG could be. The developer is even bringing a substantial DLC pack to the game that brings a crossover with the iconic NieR: Automata. If everything goes right, this PlayStation title definitely has the chance to win the Game of the Year award.

There’s a high chance we could soon experience Stellar Blade on PCs. As spotted by a Tech4Gamers forum user, a job listing describes an opening position for a combat designer at Shift Up.

What’s interesting is that the advertised role’s duties include “PC-related system design and production.” The user’s report suggests that the original version of the posting stated that the PC port was already in the pipeline.

The notion of a PC port for the PlayStation game sounds well within the realm of possibility. The developers have already considered it right after the game’s release in April. Shift Up also plans for a potential Stellar Blade sequel in the near future and a new original IP called “Project Witches.”

Even if there’s a PC version of the game in the works, its release window is still enshrouded in mysteries. Back in June, during an IPO press conference, Shift Up stated that due to the company’s relationship with Sony, it can’t bring the game to PC, at least for the time being. It wasn’t made clear how long the deal with Sony was going to last.

Sure, Sony did publish the PS5 version of the title, but it never confirmed that it owned the rights to the Stellar Blade IP with its exclusive deal with Shift Up.

With that said, do you think Stellar Blade has the chance to win GOTY 2024? If so, let us know in the comments below.