Is The Weeknd Teasing A Stellar Blade: Blood Rain Cameo?

As pop celebrity The Weeknd’s world tour hits Asia, the singer has been discovering loads of time to fulfill with native visionaries throughout gaming, movie and artwork—and another studio simply made it onto his listing.

As shared on Instagram, The Weeknd (actual title Abel Tesfaye) visited Shift Up’s improvement studio in Seoul, South Korea—finest generally known as the builders of Stellar Blade. Tesfaye posted a number of pictures of himself posing alongside studio employees, numerous Stellar Blade merchandise and firm founder Kim Hyung-tae. He even included a photograph of the title display of the upcoming sequel Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, revealing he was capable of preview the brand new title years earlier than anybody else.

What We Know About The Weeknd’s Shift Up Go to

Nevertheless, one photograph piqued fan curiosity greater than the others: one in every of Tesfaye standing inside a multi-camera 3D body-scanning rig. He didn’t look like in costume, however that hasn’t stopped followers speculating on-line that the world-famous singer is perhaps making a particular cameo look within the subsequent Stellar Blade title.

Tesfaye additionally appeared tight-lipped concerning the photograph, not addressing it straight within the put up caption. As an alternative, he thanked Shift Up CEO Kim Hyung-tae for “the nice and cozy welcome” to Korea, in addition to for the “inspiration” his go to supplied. The singer carried out a live performance in Seoul on October 7, so he visited the studio in his downtime previous to the present.

Followers have additionally speculated concerning the go to in different methods, believing The Weeknd is probably not showing in-game, however could contribute in any other case to the title, when it comes to soundtracking the epic celestial boss battles. The Stellar Blade OST heavily features electronic music, of which Tesfaye is a virtuoso.

The Weeknd’s Visited A number of Sport Studios in Japan, Too

Shift Up isn’t the primary studio to obtain Tesfaye as an honored visitor—whereas touring in Japan, the singer visited different main studios and high-profile builders in each Tokyo and Osaka.

Pictures on Instagram present Tesfaye visiting Sega headquarters, posting alongside a life-sized Sonic statue and including his signature to the studio’s famed customer wall. He additionally stopped by Capcom and Sq. Enix, sharing pictures of Kingdom Hearts merchandise and particular collectibles.

Tesfaye’s love of video video games and anime is extensively recognized, with the singer assembly famed sport creators Hidetaka Miyazaki (of Dark Souls fame) and Yoko Taro (finest recognized for his NieR sequence) whereas in Japan, too.

The Lacking Hyperlink: Hideo Kojima

One notable omission from the listing of creators met by The Weeknd is Hideo Kojima, who posts photos of his celebrity interactions virtually each different day on social media. It’s onerous to consider Tesfaye didn’t a minimum of attempt to meet the auteur whereas in his residence nation, contemplating lots of his visuals and cinematic model are so strongly impressed by Kojima’s sci-fi visuals from Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding.

Kojima is probably finest recognized for that includes celebrities and well-known actors in his video games, from Mads Mikkelsen to Norman Reedus to Elle Fanning. Nevertheless, The Weeknd’s performing gags have hardly attracted rave opinions—the singer was panned for his efficiency in HBO’s The Idol, the place he performed a pop-star-cum-cult-leader.

He additionally options well-known vocalists in his video games, similar to Caroline Polachek’s contributions to Death Stranding 2, and commonly posts his playlists on social media, that includes quite a lot of Western R&B and synthwave artists—lists that The Weeknd has by no means been featured on. Whether or not Tesfaye is touring the studios as a faithful fan or whether or not there may be extra to the story can be left to your discretion. However some performing classes wouldn’t go amiss, particularly to get on Kojima’s radar.