Stellar Blade developer requests early Xbox Project Helix dev kits, Digi Mart USA News (Seoul, South Korea): Shift Up, the South Korean studio behind Stellar Blade, has asked Microsoft to get its next-generation Xbox development hardware into Korea as early as possible. Chief Technology Officer DongKi Lee made the request on November 9 at the 2026 Console Game Developers Conference (K-Console Conference), held at the SKY31 Convention in Seoul’s Lotte World Tower.
Lee’s comment came during the event’s closing panel, moderated by former Sony Interactive Entertainment executive Shuhei Yoshida and featuring Katsuhiro Harada, Kazutaka Kodaka, Paweł Sasko and Tynan Sylvester. Lee said, according to Inven’s translation, that he was looking forward to the next-generation Xbox “Helix” and that providing a dev kit first in Korea would let the studio put in its best efforts to develop for it.
Lee framed this as personal enthusiasm rather than a platform announcement. Shift Up has not confirmed any game for Project Helix or for current Xbox hardware.
The request aligns with Microsoft’s own roadmap. Xbox Vice President of Next Generation Jason Ronald said at the Xbox Developer Summit keynote at GDC 2026 on March 11 that the team is deep in development on Project Helix and plans to ship alpha versions of the hardware to developers beginning in 2027. The console uses a custom AMD SoC and is designed to play both Xbox console and PC games.
Stellar Blade launched as a PlayStation 5 exclusive on April 26, 2024, and has since reached more platforms. The PC version followed on June 11, 2025, and Stellar Blade Complete Edition arrived on Nintendo Switch 2 on November 5, 2026. Lee told the panel that Shift Up planned for multiplatform release from the start and builds in a PC environment first.
The studio is also self-publishing its sequel, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, which was revealed at Summer Game Fest in June 2026. Shift Up has not announced platforms or a release date, and the game remains in early development. A Helix version is unconfirmed, though self-publishing leaves the platform decision in Shift Up’s hands.
Shift Up has also delayed the reveal of Project Spirits, as its Q3 profits had dwindled.
