Shift Up Assures Stellar Blade PC Launch Won't Stumble For PSN Requirement

As promised more than a year ago, Stellar Blade is now available to pre-order on Steam and Epic Games before it comes out on PC. But what should have been a happy time for fans has turned into a storm of controversy because of two big problems: the region locking that came as a surprise, and the inclusion of Denuvo's anti-piracy software.

Because of the region locking, players in 132 countries can't buy the game. A lot of these places can't connect to the PlayStation Network (PSN), which seems to be the main reason for the restriction. Stellar Blade doesn't require you to connect to PlayStation Network in order to play, but doing so seems to have caused Steam's automatic region-lock filters to go into action.

Shift Up has acknowledged the problem and is working with Sony, the publisher, to fix it. The fact that Denuvo, a digital rights management (DRM) system that PC gamers say slows things down, is included makes things even worse. Even though Denuvo is meant to stop piracy, many players say it slows down their CPUs and frames per second. There was a lot of backlash quickly, and some gamers won't buy the game until the DRM is taken away.

Shift Up confirmed that mods will work perfectly, that PSN login is still not required, and that the content is the same for both PC and PS5 for Stellar Blade. They have also said that early PC adopters will not lose out on future updates. Stellar Blade is still very popular, as shown by its current second-place ranking on the global Steam pre-sale charts.

Still, the controversy surrounding the game's release has made its good points less noticeable. At this point, fans are hoping that Sony will quickly fix the region lock problem and maybe take a second look at the Denuvo case, though the second option is unlikely because of contractual obligations.

In the end, Stellar Blade's PC release shows how platform restrictions and player expectations are becoming increasingly tense. The game itself is still getting a lot of attention, but the problems that came up when it first came out should serve as a lesson for businesses in today's global digital market.