Last month, rumors began to circulate about a PS5 version of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. While the game is being developed by Xbox owned studio Ninja Theory, February saw a ton of rumors about the company's exclusives getting released multi-platform, including major games like Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. It turned out, just four of the company's games were announced for PlayStation and Nintendo Switch: Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush on PS5, with Pentiment and Grounded on both PS5 and Switch. This has left questions about whether Hellblade II is actually happening on Sony's system.

Windows Central's Jez Corden has now chimed in on these rumors, replying to a Tweet from @IdleSloth84. Talking about Hellblade II on PS5, Corden says he "can confirm that as of right now, this is completely false." The Tweets from Corden and @IdleSloth84 can be found embedded below.

Can confirm that as of right now, this is completely false.

— Jez (@JezCorden) March 10, 2024

Hellblade II Release Date and Platforms
Readers should note Corden is only saying that Hellblade II isn't planned for PS5 "as of right now." It's possible Microsoft could eventually decide to bring the game to other platforms, just as it has with games like Hi-Fi Rush. It would make sense given the fact that the original Hellblade first released on PlayStation 4! That said, Corden tends to be a reliable source, and if he's saying the game isn't currently planned for PS5, there's a good chance that's correct. Whatever the case ends up being, the game is only planned for Xbox Series X|S and PC at the moment, so those interested in playing the game will have to check it out on those platforms when it releases on May 21st.

The Future of Xbox Exclusivity
Exclusivity has long been one of the biggest selling points for video game systems. In fact, Halo's exclusivity put the original Xbox on the map, allowing Microsoft to compete in the console business with PlayStation and Nintendo; the game was a true system seller in 2001. A lot has changed since those days, however. Video games have gotten bigger and more expensive to produce, and companies have seen multi-platform releases as a way of offsetting steep development costs. Microsoft isn't the only one that sees this appeal, as PlayStation is increasingly bringing more of its games to PC.

While there are a lot of potential upsides to multi-platform releases, there are a lot of downsides, as well. Some fans might skip out on buying certain consoles, as they can simply wait for the game to arrive elsewhere. Matt Booty seems to be well-aware that there's a tightrope to walk in terms of keeping some things exclusive. The Xbox Studios head recently reiterated that there are no plans to bring Xbox Game Pass to other systems, as the company sees it as one of the platform's biggest selling points. As time goes on, it will be interesting to see what Xbox produced games are brought to other systems, and which ones are deemed too important to release elsewhere.

Posted: Mar 14, 2024 10:54 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/hellblade-2-playstation-ps5-rumor-debunked/