Shift Up, the South Korean studio behind Stellar Blade, published an AI-generated music video on its YouTube channel on July 31, 2026 — and the reaction from fans was swift and largely negative.

The video is for "Wanna be in Love," a song featuring Evie, the protagonist of the upcoming sequel Stellar Blade: Blood Rain. In it, Evie appears as a K-pop star singing and dancing in an environment that resembles the game's setting. YouTube's AI disclaimer appears on the video, stating that "sounds or visuals were altered or fully generated" (VGC).

It does not stop at the performance. The video includes AI-generated behind-the-scenes shots featuring a fake production crew wearing Shift Up t-shirts. In one section, Evie holds up a keychain reading "K-Pop Demon Hunters" featuring a character called Derpy the Tiger. "K-Pop Demon Hunters" has no association with Stellar Blade or Shift Up — the reference appears to be an AI hallucination, the kind of invented detail generative tools produce when stitching together training data.

Fans were not impressed. Comments on the video included "Are we deadass?" and outright criticism calling it "AI slop," according to VGC. Korean outlet GameMeca characterised the reaction as mixed (GameMeca).

The timing is awkward for a studio trying to build excitement around its next big release. Stellar Blade: Blood Rain was announced at Summer Game Fest 2026 with an in-game trailer starring Evie as the new protagonist. The game does not yet have a confirmed release date. Meanwhile, the original Stellar Blade — a third-person action game first released on PlayStation 5 — is heading to Nintendo Switch 2 later in 2026.

For context on the reaction: AI-generated content has become a flashpoint in gaming and entertainment more broadly, with audiences increasingly hostile toward works that carry the telltale signs of machine generation. When a developer publishes that content on its own official channel, with its own branding, the backlash tends to land harder — fans expect a human hand behind what a studio puts its name on.

What makes this stand out is the sheer confidence of the production. The fake crew in Shift Up shirts, the invented keychain reference, the behind-the-scenes framing — it reads as a fully committed bit of worldbuilding that happened to be assembled by a machine rather than a person. Whether that distinction matters to Shift Up's audience is something the comments section has already answered.