Wednesday, June 17th 2026
New Hellblade Project Was Bait for Potential Ninja Theory Buyers
We recently reported that Xbox Game Studios is apparently looking to shutter or sell off a handful of its in-house game studios, with Ninja Theory, the studio behind the Hellblade/Senua game franchise being one of the impacted studios. With the news of the potential shuttering, there were questions about the Ninja Theory's new Senua game, which was revealed at an Xbox Showcase less than two weeks ahead of the studio closure rumors.
Ostensibly, the new Senua game was meant to be a sequel to Hellblade 2, but according to a recent report by The Game File, Xbox Game Studios already knew about the split with Ninja Theory ahead of the game's reveal in early June 2026. The prevailing theory behind the strategy to continue with the unveiling of Senua is that it would attract buyers when it was eventually revealed that Ninja Theory was being sold off, theoretically increasing the value of the company to a potential buyer, thereby allowing Xbox to recoup its investment in the studio, and making a buyout quicker. When reports surfaced about the upcoming closure or sale of Ninja Theory, it was revealed that the studio received word of its fate on Monday, June 15, 2026, and it is unclear if the machinations behind the Senua announcement were Microsoft's doing or if the leadership at Ninja Theory were also involved.
Source:
The Game File
Ostensibly, the new Senua game was meant to be a sequel to Hellblade 2, but according to a recent report by The Game File, Xbox Game Studios already knew about the split with Ninja Theory ahead of the game's reveal in early June 2026. The prevailing theory behind the strategy to continue with the unveiling of Senua is that it would attract buyers when it was eventually revealed that Ninja Theory was being sold off, theoretically increasing the value of the company to a potential buyer, thereby allowing Xbox to recoup its investment in the studio, and making a buyout quicker. When reports surfaced about the upcoming closure or sale of Ninja Theory, it was revealed that the studio received word of its fate on Monday, June 15, 2026, and it is unclear if the machinations behind the Senua announcement were Microsoft's doing or if the leadership at Ninja Theory were also involved.
12 Comments on New Hellblade Project Was Bait for Potential Ninja Theory Buyers
The characters, the costumes/outfits/weapons, the scenarios (kill him, kill her, & kill everyone over & over, & then do it again), the lighting & effects all seem so similar that it's really hard to tell one from the other..
In other words: y/A/w/N....
Its called Senua's Saga, you know like the Viking sagas that tell a story so all of the games are connected to each other in the same world/in Senua's world with her madness on top so obviously they gonna share a number of similarities.
As for the games lookin similar art/effects wise I mean yeah its it own style that they stick to cause it works for them? Don't see whats wrong about that either and I'm glad that they don't try to change it too much.
Personally they are one of my fav games of this genre and I really hope that Ninja Theory wont go down under or anything.
but I was talking about the similarities with completely separate games....they all look very similar because of the reuse of the same ole same same contents over & over again.... like all the medical/legal/spy/western shows....same subject with slightly different scenarios and a different cast of actors/actresses...but essentially just rehashes of previous shows....
Its like how we had the era of war games/movies and the super hero stuff and whatever else we had.
Hellblade 1 was more or less unique in its own way back then and since they just keep adding to it while following the same formula but at least they are not trying to pretend that its something more. At this point its just another game in the serie for the fans Senua's weird world/mind.
Tbh nowadays your best bet for unique/different ideas is to look around in the indie group of games/devs.
For movies/series I sometimes watch smaller shows with less known actors or movies from different countries than the same ole stuff that comes out of Hollywood.
I don't want to harp on about "walking simulators ain't games 1!1!" like it's 2012, but one really has to look at both Senua productions realistically. Even if I allow that there is some target audience for them, is it big enough to support it via sales? Sorry, but glowing reviews and musings about exploration of twisted psyche or some such don't pay the bills.
What does pay the bills are actual games with gameplay, which is exactly why this rumour actually makes sense. Even Clair Obscur, which I'm no fan of at all, had a lot of actual game going for it. And NT knew that once cast adrift by MS they would have to fund themselves, and that's not such an easy task in market awash with indie productions and demanding investors.
You still have to fight yourself for the most part tho Hellblade 1's combat system was a bit more in depth than 2's but it still gets the job done.
The twisted psyche of Senua was a pretty big part of what made Hellblade 1 unique, they did a fair bit of study regarding psychosis since that is a real medical condition.
The game is defo not for everyone thats a given but it does have its own fans who would easily buy the game, not sure if thats gonna be enough to pay the bills tho but coming from a smaller indie dev team it was quite successful at the time and even won some awards.
With Hellblade 1 Ninja Theory was its own developer and publisher and its only with 2 that Xbox game studios invested in them as a publisher and made whatever deal with them. Tbh maybe it would be actually better for them to stick to their own ideals tho I guess in the current world/market thats a lot more different with a smaller team with a smaller budget.
Personally these type of games for me fall into the interactive movie/story type of games and whatever else gameplay they have in them is just an extra. I would much rather have more games like these than the another hero shooter/online competitive stuff that seems to be the hype nowadays but ofc those are the money makers.. 'Oh well at least we are getting a new Plague Tale game this year which I also love..'
I agree with @Sithaer that parts of a saga don't need to be totally different from each other. While appreciating differences, we, as a species need some kind of stability, a sense of continuation in our lives.
Seems like we should know what's going on June 30th, a bunch of Xbox studios seem in danger.
Nintendo is the only one that seems to have it's $#!+ together.
Wouldn't be surprise if Bungie and Nixxes is next over at Sony.
There is tons of original content coming out almost weekly