Stellar Blade Developer Shift Up Has Acquired Shinji Mikami’s Studio Unbound

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.