Shift Up made an appearance during today's Summer Game Fest 2026 show, with its follow-up game to Stellar Blade revealed to be Stellar Blade: Blood Rain. While the first game followed Eve, Blood Rain focuses on a new protagonist, Evie, which certainly won't confuse anyone. Shift Up calls Blood Rain "the next chapter" in the Stellar Blade franchise, one that goes "beyond" the events of the first game.
We've known that Shift Up was working on a sequel for a while now, so today's announcement was always just a case of when it would reveal rather than if it would happen. After the first game was a commercial success, a sequel was confirmed before the first game reached its one-year anniversary.
Now, we know what the sequel will be called, and we have a bit more of an idea of what we can look forward to. The only disappointing element about today's announcement is the lack of a release date or even a release window to cap off the trailer.
At the very least, we know from Shift Up's latest financial records that work on Blood Rain is progressing well. Whether we'll hear more about it for the rest of this year now that we know the title and saw a bit of gameplay is unclear, though the lack of a release window certainly seems to suggest it's not going to be out before 2027.
If it's anything like the first game, it'll be an action title worth checking out. Wccftech's Kai Tatsumoto gave the first game a 9/10 when it arrived in 2024, saying, "Taking a step back from Kim Hung Tae's character designs for a moment, Stellar Blade is a phenomenal action RPG that evolves from the framework of NieR Replicant and NieR Automata to become one of the next cult classics."
For everything Summer Game Fest 2026, check out our hub page for all of the biggest announcements.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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