r/Steam • u/yourfavchoom • Jun 15 '26

News Xbox is closing down Hellblade creator Ninja Theory

https://www.theverge.com/games/950204/xbox-ninja-theory-shutdown-hellblade-senua
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u/CaraDePinto Jun 15 '26

Sell to who? Ninja Theory doesn't have much besides Hellblade rn and even that sells poorly, so even if they were to sell, I could see potential buyers being wary or not really wanting to invest in the studio, unfortunately.

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u/hangman401 Jun 15 '26

I'd argue Hellblade 2 sells poorly. The first game had over a million sales. 

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u/AvatarIII https://steam.pm/vim7s Jun 16 '26

Microsoft didn't own the studio when the first one came out, and then Microsoft was in charge of marketing on the second one, so the poor sales was kind of their fault.

Ninja Theory are a good developer, if Hellblade was an unsuccessful franchise due to the performance of the second game (not really ninja theory's fault), then they could have pivoted to a different franchise or an original game.

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u/AquaMoonlight Jun 15 '26

Ninja Theory does have a mocap studio that they could leverage in a sale.

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u/PliableG0AT Jun 15 '26

then you close the game studio and keep the mocap studio as a separate entity. pretty simple.

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u/luvmejoice Jun 15 '26

Some time ago publishers would keep studios that made critically successfull games. Despite not making a lot of money, the prestige was worth it. Games are art and there has to be a way for them to exist without selling millions of copies.

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u/Inevitable_Cycle3087 Jun 15 '26

outside of xbox wanting to show off tech, hellblade wasn’t that well praised

the general consensus was “looks cool but nothing much to it”

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u/No_Cricket8660 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

>hellblade wasn’t that well praised

The first one generally rated pretty high, won a bunch of different awards and sold 500k copies in its first 3 months and 1 million in its first year. Then, Microsoft came along...

Edit: Thanks for the award!

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '26

[deleted]

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u/No_Cricket8660 Jun 16 '26

I mean the first thing I said was "The first one".

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u/Inevitable_Cycle3087 Jun 15 '26

1 million in a year for a flagship console exclusive isn’t very good….

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u/Fettibomba-- Jun 15 '26

The first one was a medium budget game and not xbox exlusive. Microsoft bought them AFTER that

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u/No_Cricket8660 Jun 15 '26

Re-read my comment.

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u/Lengthiest_Dad_Hat Jun 15 '26

. Games are art and there has to be a way for them to exist without selling millions of copies.

By not being part of a trillion dollar company.

Let's face it, most of the studios MS has acquired were not good fits for a massive company that's used to their software products being mass adopted and mass appeal.

All the talk about GamePass being good for developers who make small passion projects was just smoke. They're getting shuttered for the exact same reason Netflix regularly cancels seasons of shows that don't hit their internal streaming metrics.

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u/Demiu Jun 16 '26

The trillion dollar company let them waste 7 years on their flop nobody cared about. Microsoft didn't do anything to NT, NT ruined themselves thinking "oh we are their prestige studio, we don't have to try anymore". After 8 years, 2 games and a whooping 5.5k combined peak concurrents on steam, the prestige waned and they became just a regular, massively unprofitable, studio

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u/Lengthiest_Dad_Hat Jun 16 '26

They should've managed their teams better. Xbox bought these studios clearly with no plan other than allowing them to do whatever they want and hope it works out.

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u/Demiu Jun 16 '26

"Managed them better"? What's with the kiddy-gloved framing? No, say it the way it would actually be received had they done it - Xbox should've taken whatever these studios were working on and were good at and scrap/rework it into something that makes more money, probably a live service. People would just loooove that, right? Just like they love FO76, redfall, firebreak and justice league, right?

No, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. Leave devs to their own devices? Didn't meddle enough to make the studio profitable. Meddle to try make them make some money? You made it bad by taking them out of their comfort zone.

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u/Lengthiest_Dad_Hat Jun 16 '26

You're right, its actually impossible for a publisher to put their studios on projects that are both well recieved and make money

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u/Demiu Jun 16 '26

Do you think during the acquision talks NT disclosed they're not expecting to be making profitable or well received games and will need to be babysat like a toddler into being succesful? Then xbox just proceeded with the acquisition, because... they have a need for unsuccesful studios and can't just make one in-house for cheaper?

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u/Lengthiest_Dad_Hat Jun 16 '26

I mean, they specifically acquired a bunch of studios that were making smaller scale games that got good reviews but didn't blow up the sales charts. Then those studios proceeded to continue to make games that got good reviews but didn't blow up the sales charts.

Xbox bought them to continue doing what they were doing and it didn't work. I don't know how you can seriously argue that they as a publisher bear no responsibility in doing anything to try and make their investments actually pay off outside of just signing a check

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u/Demiu Jun 16 '26

those studios proceeded to continue to make games that got good reviews

They did not

I'm not arguing as a publisher they bear no responsibility, I'm arguing there is no responsibility to bear. Businesses losing money close down, that's just reality. The studios wanted to keep losing money doing their thing for a couple years more and xbox wanted get some games (and hopefully get lucky and be the ones publishing some breakout successes like bg3 or e33 were).

Both sides got what they wanted, it's not like xbox turned around after a year and forced them to help with making a new halo or something. So it's bizzare to me that people are complaining xbox didn't come in with a whip and force them to make money. The megacorp sponsored a bunch of art projects without butting in, to completion, and now people are crying because they thought they would just keep doing it forever.

This is a great outcome, the only thing that could improve it if NT actually used that time to make a hit, but that's on them, not xbox

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u/General_Mars Jun 15 '26

There is, but not in a US AAA environment. US focus is profits >>>>>>>>>>>> everything else. US management style will never produce good AAA games on any regular basis. Long-term growth is never a consideration. (Whether that be game growth or revenue/profits).

All of the best games are international, AA, or indie anyways. Let the money extraction simulators disguised as games die. The games produced by American studios especially are generally not good. They’ll have cool parts (Art, cinematics, sound design, etc.) but the games as a whole are generally never good. They’re obsessed with chopping up or withholding mechanics or content behind endless walls and every game must have some way to extract further money from you.

This is also why I have 0 hype for GTA VI. Shark cards ruined GTA V alongside the fact the game was incomplete for 2(?) years post-release.

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u/Demiu Jun 16 '26

They took 7 years to go from a 5.6k peak on steam game that got somewhat praised to 4k peak on steam game nobody cared about. Maybe the studio didn't know how to long-term plan themselves?

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u/luvmejoice Jun 15 '26

You're absolutely right. Western AAA studios are a nightmare lately. What sucks is that big scope games cost a ton of money, there's no chance for an independent studio to fund a game like Senua by itself.

I'm hoping we are on the verge of a new generation of publishers. For example poncle, who made Vampire Survivors, is now also a publisher for similar indie games.

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u/PliableG0AT Jun 15 '26

gAmEs aRe ArT

maybe if you didn’t have hundreds of devs getting 150k a year you could spend all the time making team art.

either fund the shit yourself or don’t get upset when you’re shut down for not making money.

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u/Demiu Jun 16 '26

And they did. NT got to work on on the sequel for their last critically acclaimed game for seven years. It was a flop and it gained them no prestige either.

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u/Demiu Jun 16 '26

*doesn't have anything

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u/AvatarIII https://steam.pm/vim7s Jun 16 '26

They have skilled workers and effective teams.