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Breaking: Xbox is closing down Hellblade creator Ninja Theory
ShaiKhulud1989
Gold Member
That being said NT is a small team of what, 50 people? Their size was relatively small and to my knowledge HB2 was AAA done on close to Yotei budget, not a bloated 400+ million mess like new Gears. NT acted as a prestige team (like MM and Asobi for Sony) and not a huge moneysink and it's kinda disheartening to start a purgatory with them and not Turn10 or some other truly expensive failures like 343.
Embearded
Member
I was also angry at Sony for BP but wasn't there a report from ex BP devs who said that it was BP who decided to work on that?
Also management internally wasn't that great.
I surely blame Sony for not letting them go forward with Bloodborne remake because FromSoftware didn't like the idea of someone else doing it.
Nobody can convince me otherwise: the owners of Ninja Theory sold the studio to Microsoft, pocketed the money, and stayed there working for six years making a tech demo to inflate their own resumes. As soon as they delivered Hellblade 2, they left the studio.
Imagine, selling your company and continuing to work there, receiving the same pay as before... And even using the company to make a tech demo to inflate your own resume, and as soon as the tech demo comes out and flops, you find another job, IF you want to work...
I've always said that Xbox is the "dumb playboy" trying to buy success with daddy's money and being the sucker of the "industry".
'It's So Sad They're No Longer Around': Fumito Ueda Would Have Liked to Remake ICO with Shuttered Sony Studio Bluepoint
"I hoped there could be a chance to work with them"
'It's So Sad They're No Longer Around': Fumito Ueda Would Have Liked to Remake ICO with Shuttered Sony Studio Bluepoint
"I hoped there could be a chance to work with them"
www.pushsquare.com
I don't know who the idiot was in this story, BP for not suggesting an ICO remake or Sony for not approving it...
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DavidGzz
Gold Member
Or even more savage than we could ever have believed. "It's funnier this way."
KanKamAndNob
Member
I had that same mindset as well, but they have branched out which is good. Crimson Desert, Phantom Blade Zero, Tides of Annihilation, etc. They're getting better at diversifying their single player offerings.
Would still like to see more variety like CRPGs, platformers, fighting games, single player shooters, etc, but it's a very good start for both countries
roosnam1980
Gold Member
STARSBarry
Gold Member
diffusionx
Gold Member
Seems obvious to me that Sony was telling their devs if they want a game pitch to be approved it better be gaas/live. I'm not going to go through the list of studios now but it seems like 90% of them were working on a live game and that's not an accident, it's an official policy from HQ.
Yes, technically, BP devs decided to work on that stupid God of War game, but it's unlikely that they had free rein to choose anything and decided to make that.
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archangelmorph
Gold Member
I honestly hope they go back to Sony, cap in hand and take up a 2nd party role to do a Heavenly Sword sequel.
That was such a great game with a lot of promise a sequel would have done great things to deliver.
& I actually think the studio will do better without Tameem & his unique style pf "leadership".
Whilst I hated what the game represented and that it existed, DmC demonstrated that at their best when they're not solely focused on graphics whoredom, NT can produce actual (character action) games that are pretty solid.
They need to go back to that and bring down the aspirations towards production values alone; it's the wrong trade off.
That was such a great game with a lot of promise a sequel would have done great things to deliver.
& I actually think the studio will do better without Tameem & his unique style pf "leadership".
Whilst I hated what the game represented and that it existed, DmC demonstrated that at their best when they're not solely focused on graphics whoredom, NT can produce actual (character action) games that are pretty solid.
They need to go back to that and bring down the aspirations towards production values alone; it's the wrong trade off.
Hohenheim
Member
Damn, the Xbox team is on a massacre spree if all these rumours are true. Id Software, Ninja Theory, Double Fine, Compulsion... what a mess.
I really hope they all mange to continue independently, or at least het bought out by someone.
If not, I'm sure a few new studios with a lot of talent from these teams will emerge.
Sad to see the state Xbox is in if all this shit it true.
I really hope they all mange to continue independently, or at least het bought out by someone.
If not, I'm sure a few new studios with a lot of talent from these teams will emerge.
Sad to see the state Xbox is in if all this shit it true.
CashPrizes
Member
I think it makes a twisted kind of sense. They put out that trailer, let the devs go out and give interviews about it, fan excitement is just not there, views and shares and likes are non-existent, and they decide to cancel it.
It does make them look like clowns, like they don't know what they are doing from week to week (they clearly don't), but I guess they would rather look stupid then put another 100 million into a game that no one cares about.
The one upside is that for the people who only tune into the showcase and don't follow the news, the trailers inclusion makes their portfolio look a little more exclusive and a little more AAA in the moment.
DEAD ORIGINAL
Member
A video gaming forum celebrating the closure of a gaming studio…
Embearded
Member
Yeah i won't argue with that.
They can't all be that stupid, surely Sony asked for GaaS. Question is, who the hell thought GoW is a good idea..
SenkiDala
Member
Since 2010.
HoodWinked
Member
the final straw
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Lets not act like NT wasnt being insulted for the last 5 years for creating a shit walking simulator. Lets not try to rewrite history now.
Xbox probably told them after Hellblade II that you have to go back to more traditional gameplay. Asha came in and just saw the projections and killed them.
I refuse to believe that people will now and try and spin NinjaTheory as some indie darling when theres been nothing but insults thrown at the studio from before and after Hellblade IIs launch.
I appreciate, the label of 400 million dollar slop for gears though. Deffo doesnt sound like you are trying to throw shots at a beloved franchise at all. I suppose it goes well with games that are known as GOW to be modern day slop nowadays.
Shame, that Gears looks to be going back to the classic Bro shooter, yet people are still calling it slop. Interesting.
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The_Observer
Member
Please I can't take it anymore! How can one of the biggest corpos this incompetent? It's only possible because they are too big to fall. Insane
SomeNorseGuy
Gold Member
Yeah, kind of strange they're not part of the conversation tbh. Maybe they've got something Bethesda related in the works.
JusticeForAll
Gold Member
I remember thinking when Xbox bought al these studio's that they would be swarming in games and even bought a series x in anticipation of it. It was my first xbox ever, so I enjoyed the games I missed through backwards compatability, but in the end I sold it and I don't feel like I miss anything by not owning one any more, since I have a ps5 pro and switch 2.
Pretty sad that this studio closes, I actually somewhat enjoyed all of their games and I'm sure they had a masterpiece in them.
Pretty sad that this studio closes, I actually somewhat enjoyed all of their games and I'm sure they had a masterpiece in them.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Come On Tars
Member
Game would have sucked, takin forever to release, and would sell below mid. Good call sadly
This was pretty obvious.
Ninja Theory had a fantastic opportunity to turn Hellblade 2 into something much bigger and deeper. The potential was there, but after seven years of development, they ended up with a game that feels weaker than the first one in almost every way.
I don't really blame Ninja Theory alone, though. I think Microsoft made a huge mistake when they acquired the studio.
Ninja Theory had a fantastic opportunity to turn Hellblade 2 into something much bigger and deeper. The potential was there, but after seven years of development, they ended up with a game that feels weaker than the first one in almost every way.
I don't really blame Ninja Theory alone, though. I think Microsoft made a huge mistake when they acquired the studio.
Just wait until Hellblade 2 and Indiana Jones get released.
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KanKamAndNob
Member
A video gaming forum celebrating the closure of a gaming studio…
CashPrizes
Member
Bro.... this is what she was brought on to do.
xrnzaaas
Member
So it matters after all how many views your trailer gets... who's laughing now?the final straw
ValiantInstance
Member
Just out of interest, why?
They've spent the last 10 years making walking simulator tech demos nobody plays, with some pretentious storyline about mental health.
Their target audience was Digital Foundry and TGA.
PatientGamer
Member
Not with Herman Hulst at the helm. He'd rather make a Horizon Musou game before allowing HS2.Does this mean we can get Heavenly Sword 2 if Sony buys them?
nnytk
Member
I still cannot fathom how nobody near these devs was like: "Hmm, I'm not sure if there is an audience for this type of game."the final straw
It looks so unapologetically unappealing on so many levels. I don't get it.
Lord Panda
The Sea is Always Right
Yeah no shit - I'm just venting bro. It never should've been allowed to get this far. Nutella's been a godsend to shareholders for growing Microsoft and making bank for them, no argument there. But he's an s-tier cunt for what he's let happen to Windows, for trying to shoehorn AI into every corner of it, for the aggressive erosion of user privacy (remember Recall?), for the tens of thousands of staff shown the door while the company's posting record profits, and for letting Xbox and Microsoft Gaming leadership piss away any gains they had. Best thing he's done lately was bring Asha in to clean house, and even that should've happened years ago. Whatever, I'm done with MS shit. The XSX will be last console I'll ever buy from them.
YOU PC BRO?!
Gold Member
Ninja Theory deserve this.
The games they made were designed mainly to win awards, not to entertain. They should have worked on a remake of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and a sequel. That game was actually good. Also, they would have been well suited to make a horror|survival horror game. Why anyone believed that these shitty arthouse project games were a good idea I don't know. I remember Phil Spencer saying that he purchased Ninja Theory because they were able to quickly produce Hellblade, a visually AAA title on a "micro-budget" of under $10 million. He then went on to fund them to make a sequel which they worked on for 6 - 7 years and cost likely more than ten times that amount. What a joke.
The games they made were designed mainly to win awards, not to entertain. They should have worked on a remake of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and a sequel. That game was actually good. Also, they would have been well suited to make a horror|survival horror game. Why anyone believed that these shitty arthouse project games were a good idea I don't know. I remember Phil Spencer saying that he purchased Ninja Theory because they were able to quickly produce Hellblade, a visually AAA title on a "micro-budget" of under $10 million. He then went on to fund them to make a sequel which they worked on for 6 - 7 years and cost likely more than ten times that amount. What a joke.
FreeY$L
Member
Replay value, level design, accessible combat allowing you to actually style without resorting to holding the controller like a crab, and so much more.
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