By Sagar V. Mankar After the recent successful launch of Shift Up Corp’s initial public offering (IPO), 45-year-old CEO Hyung-Tae Kim has now officially joined the billionaire club.
With his stake in the company now valued at approximately $1.2 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Kim’s achievement is monumental.
The IPO raised an impressive $320 million, with shares surging 18% on the company’s trading debut—the highest for a Korean gaming company in the past three years.
Despite initial hardships, Kim’s passion for illustration and video games has ultimately propelled him to this incredible success.
Kim Follows His Childhood Dream
Hyung-Tae Kim’s journey from a struggling artist to the CEO of Shift Up is nothing short of remarkable.
Since childhood, Kim spent most of his time “drawing or sleeping,” laying the foundation for his future success in the gaming industry.
His distinctive style, characterized by highly stylized character designs, dynamic poses, and exaggerated proportions, quickly became his trademark, setting him apart in a competitive field.
Before founding Shift Up in 2013, he gained recognition for his work on popular titles such as “Blade & Soul” and “Magna Carta,” where his art style became a defining feature.
These projects not only showcased Kim’s artistic prowess but also gave him valuable insights into the game development process.
The success of these titles fueled his ambition to create something of his own, planting the seeds for what would eventually become Shift Up.
Found His Own Company
In 2013 Kim took a leap of faith and founded Shift Up Corp.
However, the early days of Shift Up were far from easy.
In a 2015 interview with Korean outlet Edaily, Kim candidly admitted, “I myself struggle to take care of my own family. I don’t think I can be a good example for most ordinary people who want to be an illustrator.”
The company’s first project was the mobile gacha game Destiny Child, released in 2016 on Android and iOS, which received mixed responses.
Despite these initial challenges, Kim persevered.
His breakthrough came in 2022 when Shift Up produced the mobile game “Goddess of Victory: Nikke,” a game that quickly rose to the top on the App Store and Play Store.
This success caught the attention of Chinese gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., which invested in the company heavily, becoming the second-largest shareholder after Kim.
Stellar Blade: Game Changer for Shift Up
In 2019, Shift Up decided to venture into Console Gaming and hired many developers from his previous work titles like Blade & Soul. This AAA console game is Project Eve which was later renamed as Stellar Blade.
The game’s character designs followed Hyung-Tae’s trademark style, featuring the female character Eve in very NSFW outfits with exaggerated body proportions.
In April 2024, the game was released worldwide on PlayStation 5 exclusively, and it became an instant hit.
While some praised the bold and beautiful designs, others criticized them as unrealistic (IGN France Controversy) and shallow.
Despite the controversy, or perhaps partly because of it, “Stellar Blade” sold more than a million copies within two months.
This commercial success further solidified Shift Up’s position in the gaming industry and set the stage for the company’s successful IPO.
The Seoul-based company posted a profit of 107 billion won ($78 million) last year, and intends to use the IPO proceeds to expand its workforce and develop new game titles.
This success led Kim to join South Korea’s gaming billionaire club, alongside Kwon Hyuk-Bin of Smilegate Holdings ($3.2 billion) and Chang Byung-Gyu of Krafton.
Shift Up’s success story is part of a larger trend in South Korea’s thriving gaming industry.
The company joins a prestigious list of publicly traded South Korean gaming developers, including Krafton Inc., NCSoft, Netmarble Corp., and Pearl Abyss Corp.
Collectively, these companies boast a market value of roughly $22 billion, highlighting the significant economic impact of the gaming sector in South Korea.