Shift Up, the Korean game developer behind Stellar Blade, has done an unexpected leveling up.
They made this announcement on their site yesterday:
SHIFT UP (CEO Hyung-Tae Kim) announced that it has completed the acquisition of Japanese game developer UNBOUND Inc. by acquiring all of its shares.
UNBOUND is a PC and console game development studio led by Shinji Mikami…
Currently, UNBOUND is developing original PC and console-based IPs targeting the global market.
This puts Shift Up in the unusual position of being a Korean game company that now owns a Japanese game company.
Of course, this isn’t like Shift Up buying something like Mikami’s former employer Capcom. Unbound is an independently owned game studio of a considerably smaller scale.
There’s some novelty to it because of the video game history of both countries. But overall, this represents a growing push from Korea to work with Japanese game companies.
Certainly, Shinji Mikami is unlikely to make a game like Stellar Blade or Goddess of Victory: Nikke. This move is going to expand Shift Up’s gameography and raise their profile.
