Why Are Stellar Blade Fans Worried About Jerome Benzadon's New Role?
- Sagar Mankar
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Jerome Benzadon has left PlayStation after 13 years to take on a new role as Head of Global Communications at Shift Up. He announced the move himself on August 19 on LinkedIn and X, and the gaming community wasted no time reacting.
In a post, Benzadon talked about his excitement to lead global campaigns for the studio, including projects tied to Kim Hyung-tae (Stellar Blade: BLOOD RAIN) and Shinji Mikami (UNBOUND's next game).
Benzadon has been in games communications for over 20 years now. His career started in the early 2000s with junior marketing and PR roles on titles like Beyond Atlantis II and MegaRace: MR3. From there, he moved into bigger territory.
He spent time at THQ handling PR across Europe, working on games like Saints Row, Warhammer, STALKER, Red Faction, Stuntman, Company of Heroes, Titan Quest, and Worms. Then came Ubisoft, where he worked on Tom Clancy titles, Driver: San Francisco, and Might & Magic. After that, he landed at PlayStation in 2013 and stayed there until this month.
During his time at Sony, he helped run PR and influencer campaigns, including the French launch of Gran Turismo 7 in 2022. That launch famously involved Formula 1 driver Esteban Ocon as a brand ambassador, a partnership Benzadon reportedly helped secure.
Why Are People Upset Then?
Here's where things get messy. Benzadon's professional background includes a noted focus on DEI, or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. That single detail set off a wave of concern among Shift Up's fanbase.
Why does that matter so much? Well, Shift Up built its reputation on games like Goddess of Victory: NIKKE and Stellar Blade. Both are known for stylized, often highly sexualized character designs, and a general refusal to tone things down for Western sensibilities.
Stellar Blade in particular became a lightning rod in bigger conversations about the "male gaze" and how East Asian studios handle character design compared to Western ones.
Many fans view Shift Up as one of the few studios pushing back against what they see as growing self-censorship elsewhere in the industry. So when a former PlayStation exec with a DEI-heavy resume steps into a communications leadership role, the reaction was almost instant.
Players are worried this hire could shape future creative direction or marketing for titles like NIKKE, Stellar Blade and its sequel.
One fan wrote:
"SHIFT UP what in the f**k are you doing?! Sure, this individual is not part of the development team but why would you want to stain your name with DEI crap? We all know this Jerome person is going to cause problem with the fan base."
Another one added:
"In the last 20 years, DEI destroyed PlayStation and all of those Japanese companies we loved before. Yeah, they make money but at what cost, remaking legendary titles, rewriting scripts and censoring the sh*t out of them. They just hired 1 of those bozos, what a ret*rd move."
Benzadon himself responded to some of the backlash directly. He said he's been a fan of Shift Up since Destiny Child, and told worried users simply, "don't worry."
Benzadon’s role centers on global communications and campaigns rather than game design. Whether that distinction holds in practice is the question currently driving much of the online conversation.
Comments