Stellar Blade’s director Kim Hyung-Tae made his name on the Forbes list. So how did he reach this reserve from the gaming industry?
Stellar Blade Kim Hyung-Tae, who has made its name worldwide, draws attention not only with its creative success, but also with its financial rise. Kim, who once started his career as a playing artist, is one of the 50 richest names in Korea as the founder and chairman of Shift Up today. According to Forbes, Kim’s wealth is about $ 725 million and behind this increase, there are great successes on both the mobile and console side.
Stellar Blade and Nikke crowned success
The mobile game developed by Shift Up is at the basis of Kim Hyung-Tae’s rapid rise. This production, which attracts attention with its “Waifu” character theme, attracted great attention in the mobile game market and enabled the company to generate serious income. This financial success allowed Shift Up to turn to more ambitious and single -player projects. As a result, the Stellar Blade special for PS5.
Stellar Blade’s success reinforced not only with the sales figures, but also with Kim’s personal contribution to the project. Kim, who is the director, assistant producer and designer in the game, is still at the center of creative processes, although he is the hill manager of the company. This shows how much it depends on the project and the importance it attaches to the details.
2024 was full of records for Shift Up. The fact that Stellar Blade attracted more attention than expected strengthened the position of the studio in the game world. While this success was directly reflected in Kim Hyung-Tae’s reserve, it was a matter of curiosity which projects will turn to in the future. The players are enthusiastically waiting for the next step of the studio.
Although it is known that Shift Up is working on a new project for the time being, it is not yet clear whether this game will be in the style of Nikke or Stellar Blade. However, the high quality expectation in a project that Kim is at the beginning is already formed. Shift Up continues to increase its impact in the Korean gaming industry not only with content but also with its income and brand power.