The latest chapter in Senua’s journey received high marks from critics, but sales numbers seem to have missed the mark. There are no concrete metrics available, but what data is available paints a grim picture for the series. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice first launched on PlayStation 4 before eventually arriving on Xbox, but with Ninja Theory now a part of Xbox Game Studios, the plan was always to keep Hellblade 2 exclusive to Microsoft’s platform. Industry insider Jez Corden says Xbox now views that as a major misstep. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he writes: “I heard they consider Hellblade exclusivity a mistake.”

This comes as reply to a fan who asked why Xbox Game Studios has a seemingly mixed philosophy around its biggest titles. The Outer Worlds 2 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are two big hits for Xbox that are (or will be) available on PlayStation and other platforms, while South of Midnight (Compulsion Games) and Avowed (Obsidian Entertainment) will be exclusively on Xbox consoles.

2025 could be a make or break year for Xbox. While an out-of-context quote from studio head Phil Spencer about Xbox potentially “exiting the gaming market” in 2029 previously did rounds on social media, the company is not exactly on death’s doorstep. It’s no secret Xbox is banking on Game Pass being an even bigger success in the coming years. Though blockbuster titles like Avowed and Indiana Jones are a big part of the company’s strategy, so are technical and creative achievements like Hellblade 2, making it very unlikely Ninja Theory will see any real blowback for diminished sales.

In fact, Corden previously stated Ninja Theory will not go the same way as studios like Arkane Austin. He reported the studio’s next game had been greenlit by Microsoft back in May 2024. For those keeping track, this is not Project Mara that the studio announced in 2020, but a second new title that is reportedly in early development. No details are available about this new game just yet, but Corden has proven to be a reliable source many times over.

This is deeply reassuring for fans of both Hellblade and Ninja Theory. Xbox repeatedly used Hellblade 2 as a showcase piece throughout its development. It’s clear the company views the series as a standard-bearer for what Xbox is capable of, both in terms of console performance and creativity. Yet, Ninja Theory is much more than the Hellblade franchise alone. The often-beleaguered studio’s previous titles include Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, DmC: Devil May Cry, and Heavenly Sword. None of those games set the world on fire commercially or critically, but they did deliver some of the most pure hack-n-slash fun ever in gaming, and losing the studio behind them would be a crushing blow for an industry that has suffered far too many in the last ten years.

Posted: 5 hours, 16 minutes ago
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/xbox-hellblade-2-exclusivity-mistake/