Stellar Blade developer Shift Up has gifted all of its employees with a PS5 Pro, as well as a cash sum, as part of the studio's end-of-year bonus program.
According to Korean news platform Naver (via VGC), around 300 employees at Shift Up have received their very own PS5 Pro as an end-of-year bonus, as well as 5 million Korean won, which works out at around $3,400.
A Shift Up rep told Naver that the bonuses had been awarded "for the purpose of encouraging talent" (a quote for which we've used machine translation).
Given that the PS5 Pro retails for around $700 (which works out at about 1 million won), these bonuses are not to be sniffed at.
Still, Stellar Blade managed to shift (no pun intended) around a million copies within its first couple of months on release, and although Shift Up hasn't released newer sales figures than that, it seems the game is at least performing well enough to prompt the studio to issue these goodies.
News of Shift Up's end-of-year employee bonuses comes as the studio gears up to release Stellar Blade on PC, at least if its latest financial results are anything to go by.
The PC release of Stellar Blade is apparently planned for sometime this year, and Shift Up expects sales on the platform to "exceed that on consoles". Hey, who knows? Maybe Shift Up employees will get new gaming PCs at the end of this year.
As for Stellar Blade itself, it's received a number of updates since launching in April this year, including a Nier: Automata crossover and several festive outfits.
While Shift Up's attention is doubtless focused on Stellar Blade for the near future, the studio has apparently already begun work on its next game, which will, according to the studio itself, be a "cross-platform next-gen project".
It's likely to be some time before we hear more about that, so while we wait, you can check out Stellar Blade right now on PS5. Make sure to read our very own Austin's glowing review if you want more encouragement to pick up the game.
