People Are Trying To Refund Stellar Blade Over Claims Of “Censorship”

A group of Stellar Blade fans have accused developer Shift Up and publisher Sony of “censoring” the game. This comes as some of Eve‘s outfits were found to have received changes in the day one patch, with fans arguing that the alterations amount to censorship.

The original designs are only visible if you have a physical release of Stellar Blade and install it without the day-one patch. They were not present in the pre-release copies that reviewers and content creators received ahead of the game’s launch, making the reason behind the changes unclear.

We captured some footage of the outfits before release, showing the designs that some fans are calling censored. The main change is that some, like the bunny outfit, include some black lacing around the chest area. In another example, Eve now wears black stockings with one of her dresses. Others outfits still show a lot of skin, however, such as Eve’s bikini costume.

A video circulating online shows Stellar Blade director Hyung-Tae Kim responding to the claims that the day-one update censors the game. Here, he suggests that this isn’t the case, and is quoted as saying, “I want to clarify that this is our final product”.

Stellar Blade Director Responds To “Censorship” Claims

This explanation has satisfied some in the community, but frustrated others even further. It’s prompted some to encourage a boycott of PlayStation Plus, as they blame Sony for the apparent censorship. Others, namely in the subreddit for the streamer Asmongold, are claiming you can get a full refund if you cite “false advertising” as your reason for wanting your money back.

A petition to have the unused outfits restored in a future update is circulating too, sitting at around 35,000 signatures at the time of writing.

It isn’t completely unheard of for cut content to be left in the physical releases of a game and not the digital versions. For example, if you install Cyberpunk 2077 from a PS4 or Xbox One disc in offline mode, you’ll find a bunch of cut content, including various aesthetic changes to the characters and UI. That would line up with what happened with Stellar Blade, since the outfits players discovered on day one were not present in the pre-release digital copies that news outlets and content creators received.

So far, neither Shift Up nor Sony have responded to the backlash. We don’t have access to sales or player figures just yet, so it’s unclear if the drama has hurt Stellar Blade’s performance at all. At the very least, it doesn’t seem to have harmed the reviews, as it sits at 82 on Metacritic with a user score of 8.9.