Stellar Blade has been making headlines all over the place. While I would like to tell you that it is about the excitement surrounding the game, it is instead about a different reason. There is certain online controversy for one simple reason. There is a beautiful woman in the game. That is it. That is the whole drama. Because the lead is attractive, calls for censorship have been making the rounds. While it is a small number of crazy people, calls similar to this have worked in the past.
Many studios have backed down to social media pressure and changed designs to appease people who will never play the game. However, the Stellar Blade Director has stood firm that they will not be making any changes to the game. This week, we got that confirmation when the game received its ESRB rating. Stellar Blade will be receiving a mature rating of 17+, which is quite high for a video game. This rating is typically reserved only for games such as GTA.
Many were skeptical that Stellar Blade would allow the game to be released uncensored. While creators stood firmly behind the game, publishers often got cold feet when there was so much discourse. While the strategy of crying about a pretty girl in a game has worked in the past, these days, it rings hollow. Thus, the critics of the game shifted their battle plan and proceeded to call everyone who liked the game a lover of children as well. This is a bit of a new strategy, but luckily, it did not work.
Stellar Blade Is Shaping Up To Be A Success
Despite all the controversy, Stellar Blade is trending in a positive direction. Pre-order sales for the game have firmly placed it in the number two position on the PlayStation store. While these numbers change around a lot, they do paint a telling story. The fan service still works. If you listen to the fans instead of social media crazy people, you can still make a successful game. While I am strongly against pre-ordering games, I understand why people choose to do that.
If I had to make a personal recommendation, I would advise people to hold off. I like the fact that the studio is not backing down, but that is what they are supposed to do. You can still support the game, but personally for me, it is always better to buy at release. In today’s digital age, there are too many broken releases. While I support studios that stand firm, video game releases have also burned me too many times. However, this topic of conversation is irrelevant.
If you want to support the studio, then you should do so. High sales will prove to studios that fans still enjoy these types of games. Hopefully, other studios will learn from this and follow in their footsteps.
[…] Stellar Blade is still making the news, and the reason remains the same. Ever since this game was announced, certain online personalities have been crying about sexualization. While these people are entitled to their opinions, their arguments are borderline on the downright crazy. What gets me most is the blatant hypocrisy that people argue against attractive girls in video games. One thing that I do have to give credit for is the usual suspects not jumping on the hate train. Sites like Kotaku and The Verge usually salivate from the mouth at a chance to call a game sexist. […]