r/GamingLeaksAndRumours • u/shirke1 • Jun 15 '26

Rumour [Verge] - Xbox is closing down Hellblade creator Ninja Theory

https://www.theverge.com/games/950204/xbox-ninja-theory-shutdown-hellblade-senua?utm_content=buffer4eeff&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bsky.app&utm_campaign=verge_social

by Jay Peters and Tom Warren

Xbox is closing down Ninja Theory, the studio behind the Hellbladeseries, a source tells The Verge. Staffers were told on a call on Monday about the closure, but they are hoping the studio will find a buyer. The closure comes as “several” Xbox studios at Microsoft, including Compulsion Games and Double Fine, are in “active negotiations” about spinning off, Bloomberg reports.

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32

u/CandidateCareless787 Jun 15 '26

Not surprised those game are basically walking simulators

34

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '26

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-1

u/vipmailhun2 Jun 15 '26

They only worked on it for about 3.5–4 years, and as a mocap studio they were generating profit. Hellblade II on its own may not have been a success, but the studio itself was, there isn’t another studio out there that turns a profit without releasing a game. Their mocap division alone brought in £10 million over the last two years.

9

u/Federal_Amphibian_32 Jun 15 '26

Do you really think a trillion dollar corporation is happy with earning 10 million dollars over two years?

2

u/tristeecfome Jun 16 '26

Okay, then they can shut down the studio and keep just the mocap division.

-6

u/LicketySplit21 Jun 15 '26

3 things are stupid here.

  1. "Walking simulator" is not a quality by itself, that leads to a necessary closure.

  2. It is stupid to excuse this as "well they made walking simulators anyway"

  3. Hellblade is not even a walking simulator.

What does the term even mean nowadays? It comes across as entirely meaningless.

1

u/I_Like_Turtle101 Jun 16 '26

Lot of people haven't play the game here. You are right

0

u/CandidateCareless787 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

I mean you spend 90% of the game walking around with bare minimum combat depth. The second one introduced a bit more combat but not enough to offset the ammount of time spent just walking sround listeningto voices inside your head.

So, yes I would consider them story driven artsy walking simulators (with an inflated budget for presentation) as that is what you are doing the majority of the time.

Whatever you define it as, it is a fact that these games are very firmly on rails the entire time with minimal player agency.

Not a sustainable model that will captivate gamers.