Update: Contradicting what they said previously, Ninja Theory clarifies that they will not be restarting the game's development. Rather, the studio is moving the game's development into the production phase.
"We are not starting the game development again. Production is a phase of dev that we are just moving into. Now we build the game," they wrote.
Original post: Ninja Theory, the developers of DMC: Devil May Cry and Enslaved have been working on Hellblade, a new game in which players take on the role of a Celtic warrior suffering from PTSD. In the initial reveal of the game at E3 2015, it she was shown battling the demons of her mind.
The game's initial presentation was relatively well received, if not for some concerns about the possible mis-handling of mental illness in a video game.
In a surprise move, Ninja Theory has just revealed that they will be scrapping everything they've shown us so far.
"We are committed to the open development of Hellblade from first playable (vertical slice) to last as the positives outweigh the risks," stated the studio on their official Twitter account.
"A vertical slice is a testbed of ideas," they continued. "NOt part of the final game. It has been retired and we have started Hellblade production afresh."
The studio added that gamers can follow the creation of the game at the official website.
At this point, it is unknown whether the criticism had anything to do with the scrapping of the vertical slice, but it is clear that the developers were not satisfied with what they produced.
Hellblade itself isn't cancelled, and remains in development. However, as they are starting from scratch, we expect that it will be awhile before we see the revamped version.
