Today, Korean developer Shift Up, known for Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke, announced its financial results for Q1 of 2025.
It’s worth mentioning that Shift Up follows the calendar year and not the usual April-March fiscal year, so this is related to the period between January and March 2025.
According to the documents, Revenue was 42,235 million Wn, up 13% year-on-year. Of that, 32,311 million Won were from Goddess of Victory: Nikke (which was actually down 11.4% year-on-year), while 7,012 million Won were from Stellar Blade.
Operating profit was 26,251 million won, up 1.2% year-on-year.
We hear that the PS5 version of Stellar Blade continues to perform steadily. Cumulative sales are higher than pre-launch expectations.
Interestingly, official figures portraying Eve and Taki have sold out immediately as pre-orders have become available. The IP momentum has remained strong during Q1, and developer plans it to continue until June, when the PC version will release.
The developer then plans to “continue the momentum in [the] PC market through game optimization, enhanced convenience, additional content, and tailored marketing strategies unique to Shift Up.”
The Goddess of Victory: Nikke collaboration is expected to attract attention and expand the user base.
Shift Up also mentions that the launch window of its next game, “Project Witches,” is targeted for 2027 (previously, the developer mentioned “after” 2027), and the intention is to start revealing it gradually starting in Q2 this year.
This means that we should expect hearing about it between now and June. A Summer Game Fest reveal would fit that window, but this is just my speculation.
Speaking of Goddess of Victory: Nikke, while revenue was down year-on-year, things are going pretty well, and traffic remained “stable” thanks to the latest Neon Genesis Evangelion collaboration that went better than the first (which disappointed) and the release of Bready in March. Apparently, she was particularly popular among Western users.
This helped keep the traffic steady ahead of the 2.5 anniversary event and Stellar Blade collaboration, with user traffic growth being particularly significant in South Korea and North America.
The 2.5 anniversary event “has already received strong positive responses from users,” ranking 3rd in South Korea, 3rd in Japan, and 4th in Taiwan on iOS. Shift up expects the Stellar Blade collaboration to generate strong user support and good results thanks to “compelling content and marketing.”
Other gaming companies have also already announced their financial results this quarter, including Koei Tecmo, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Konami, Marvelous Entertainment, and Sega. You can expect more reports on this topic over the coming week or so.
