According to reports, if you happened to browse around the PlayStation Store, you may have seen the phantom release of a 45 minute demo for Stellar Blade. The upcoming action game from Shift-Up Corporation had the demo available, but it was only up for roughly a half hour. This was long enough for PS5 users to access and play through long enough to record gameplay footage. Fans on Reddit shared their thoughts about what they had a chance to experience.

"Played, it’s very good. Upset I can’t play more tbh, combat was really fun and you can’t just hack n slash," stated user TumbleweedDirect9846, who compared the action to a combination of Ninja Gaiden, Nier, and Lies of P. 

Players who already downloaded the demo found their access to be completely revoked, according to Games Radar. No statement has been made from Sony or Shift Up regarding this mishap, as of this writing. The situation has been compared to the decommissioning of the Silent Hills P.T. demo back in 2015, once again raising the issue of video game ownership and preservation.

The difference being, there is a chance that this demo could be made available for the general public, and this premature publishing was likely a mistake. P.T. was a cancelled video game, following Hideo Kojima's departure from Konami. Time will tell if Stellar Blade's demo becomes a reality, with the game a little more than a month away from its release. 

Stellar Blade launches exclusively on the PlayStation 5 April 26th 2024.

SOURCES: Reddit, Games Radar