Shift Up, the South Korean studio behind Stellar Blade and mobile hit Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, is actively working to expand publishing its own games, according to South Korean outlet GameMeca.

The company has opened up job listings for roles in localization, marketing, and PR. The postings state that Shift Up is preparing for a “new leap forward in the global market” and wants to grow its self-publishing capabilities to support its own console and PC titles going forward. A Shift Up representative confirmed to GameMeca that the move is aimed at better supporting in-house games over the long term, in step with the studio’s recent growth on the global stage.

This marks a notable shift in direction. When Shift Up went public on the South Korean stock exchange in 2024, CEO Tae-hyung Kim indicated the company would stay focused mainly on game development, with self-publishing kept as a possibility down the road rather than an immediate priority. Now, the studio appears to be taking concrete steps to make that a reality.

Shift Up isn’t completely new to publishing as it previously self-published Destiny Child, a mobile title that shut down in September 2023. But the new hiring push suggests a more serious, structured effort this time around.

That said, not all of the studio’s upcoming titles will go through this route. Project Spirits, formerly known as Project Witches, is set to be published globally by Level Infinite, the publishing label under Tencent, as confirmed back in November 2024. So the self-publishing push may apply more to other future projects.

One of those is the currently in-development sequel to Stellar Blade, for which no publisher has been announced yet.