Ninja Theory may be doing a whole lot better than fans seem to be thinking online.
Recently, the studio shared a message on Twitter about Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, expressing their thanks to fans, and stating that they believe they were able to achieve their ambitious goals for this sequel.
However, Ninja Theory’s parent company, Microsoft Gaming, recently put themselves in hot water when their leadership at Zenimax, facing consolidation, closed Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. A lot of fans responded to this message with the sentiment that they expected Microsoft to close Ninja Theory too.
But this time, the word on the grapevine does not support this speculation. As reported on Windows Central, Ninja Theory just got approval to work on a new project. To even add to that good news, this is a different project from Project Mara, the horror title that they announced in 2020.
And yes, Microsoft already owned Ninja Theory at this point. That means that Microsoft Gaming has committed to producing two more games from the studio at the dawn of the launch of this title.
And there may be even more meat on that bone too. Gaz AKA Septic Sauce shared this tweet in response to this report:
“Yep as I said on my show and Discord, Hellblade 3 has already been green lit. Xbox gave Ninja Theory assurances already apparently after the Tango fiasco. Let’s see if they keep their word mind. But I’m not worried.”
So it seems that even the people sharing these good news have a bit of skepticism about what Microsoft says, even internally. But so far, what they have heard implies that Ninja Theory does still have a bright future within the company, and Microsoft does plan to keep the studio busy making more games.
To reexamine that, the rumor going around was that Zenimax chose to shut down Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, because their consolidation meant they had to cut projects to stay in budget. Both of those studios were pitching new games that they had not yet started working on, while other studios within the company had other games that were already in the works for years now.
Those games include The Elder Scrolls 6, Indiana Jones and The Magic Circle, and Marvel’s Blade. If Zenimax’s thread of logic is that it was easier to close studios than start even more games, than Microsoft could have easily made the same decision here, but that’s not what they did.
Of course, a rumor is one thing. If next month’s Xbox Games Showcase arrives with an official announcement of Hellblade III, regardless of how well Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II performs, than we’ll know that Microsoft is really correcting their course.
