{"id":55701,"date":"2026-01-13T13:58:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T04:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=55701"},"modified":"2026-01-13T13:58:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T04:58:30","slug":"stellar-blade-director-says-using-ai-will-be-essential-for-competing-with-overwhelming-manpower-of-china-and-us-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/stellar-blade-director-says-using-ai-will-be-essential-for-competing-with-overwhelming-manpower-of-china-and-us-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"Stellar Blade director says using AI will be essential for competing with\u00a0overwhelming\u00a0manpower\u00a0of China and US developers\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During a national briefing on South Korea\u2019s \u201c2026 Economic Growth Strategy\u201d held on January 9, Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade director Hyung-tae Kim shared his views on AI, positioning it as an essential tool for going up against large competitors like China on a global level (as reported by GameMeca<\/a>). The briefing, overseen by South Korea\u2019s president, was attended by major government officials, with Kim representing the private sector among other prominent business owners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the domestic game industry, Kim expressed a sense of crisis about China\u2019s overwhelming advantage when it comes to manpower, and suggested that the use of AI technology will be indispensable to overcoming this gap (note that this is based on machine translation, so exact nuance should be taken with a grain of salt). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that with about 80% of Shift Up\u2019s revenue coming from the overseas market, Chinese games are a formidable rival. \u201cWe devote around 150 people to a single game, but China puts in between 1,000 to 2,000. We lack the capacity to compete, both in terms of quality and volume of content.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hyung-tae\u00a0Kim, image via GameMeca<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to Kim, the solution to this issue lies in adopting AI. He argues that widespread use of AI will not result in people losing their jobs, because competing with major industries like China and the US will require not only utilizing all available manpower, but also making everyone proficient in AI, so that \u201cone person can perform the work of 100 people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hwi-young Chae, South Korea\u2019s Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, supported this stance, commenting, \u201cSome large game companies already possess their own AI technologies, and they are also designing programs to grow together with small and medium-sized studios.\u201d As Chae explains, the government will be working on financially supporting the shift to AI, with investments planned for 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/strong>:\u00a0Stellar Blade developer Shift Up launches large-scale recruitment for new game Project Spirits<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Umamusume developer Cygames establishes dedicated AI studio for creating \u201csafe and secure\u201d in-house models<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade director Hyung-tae Kim recently talked about AI in Korea’s game industry, expressing support for its adoption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":48149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,18],"class_list":["post-55701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ai","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nStellar Blade director says using AI will be essential for competing with\u00a0overwhelming\u00a0manpower\u00a0of China and US developers\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade director Hyung-tae Kim recently talked about AI in Korea's game industry, expressing support for its adoption.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/stellar-blade-director-says-using-ai-will-be-essential-for-competing-with-overwhelming-manpower-of-china-and-us-developers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stellar Blade director says using AI will be essential for competing with\u00a0overwhelming\u00a0manpower\u00a0of China and US developers\u00a0 - 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