After initially being region locked, Shift Up’s Stellar Blade is finally available on PC in the Philippines and the rest of the world.
While many fans were disappointed by the game’s initial region lock, the game was silently made available for pre-purchase on Steam in previously unsupported countries. PlayStation and Shift Up did not have an official announcement, though fans quickly spotted this. As such, the Stellar Blade demo for PC is also now available in the Philippines and most other countries across the world.
For those wondering why this game was region-locked in the first place, the reason is Sony’s recent directive for PC releases. Over the past year, Sony has started requiring PC players to link their PlayStation accounts. Because of this, recent PlayStation PC ports like Spider-Man 2 have not been released in countries that aren’t supported on the PlayStation Network.
This even became a huge talking point with Helldivers 2, as that game’s PC version was previously released in most of the world, but it was subsequently taken off Steam in the PH and other unsupported regions.
It’s not clear why PlayStation walked back on its region locking for Stellar Blade, though some players believe that it’s because PlayStation does not own Shift Up. As such, some believe that it was Shift Up’s decision to remove the region lock for this game.
Given this, the hope is that PlayStation will also remove region locking for its PC ports soon. Or at the very least, we’re hoping that PlayStation will finally support more countries. After all, even Nintendo indicated that it will launch Switch Online in the Philippines.
Stellar Blade is launching on PC via Steam on June 12, 2025. For those who can’t wait, the game is out now on PS5.