Hellblade Is About Making Both Players And Developers Happy

Ninja Theory is finally going solo (or independent, if you prefer) with Hellblade, after a lifetime of being contracted to develop games such as Heavenly Sword for Sony Computer Entertainment, Enslaved for Bandai Namco and DmC: Devil May Cry for Capcom.

Hellblade is being called by the studio an “indie AAA” project. They theorized the renaissance of mid-sized developers thanks to specific niche games and smaller budgets; in an interview with games™, Product Development Manager Dominic Matthews said:

This is the future for Ninja Theory – we’re creating our own IP and we’ve got creative control over our own games. But we want other mid-size developers to make games like this, as well. Because if we can show this model is a success, or at least viable, then wouldn’t it be fantastic to live in a games industry where there are tons of mid-size studios that can produce super high-quality, really creative games?

This isn’t about us making millions and millions of pounds; this is about us making a living, making the games that we want to make. If we can do that, we’ll be happy. It’s a lot of fun doing this, making games. If we can deliver niche games to fans that want them, then it’s a model that can work for the players as much as it can work for us.

Hellblade is currently scheduled for a 2015 release on both PC and PlayStation 4 platforms; you can expect to hear more about it at E3 2015, so stay tuned for more.