Xbox studio Ninja Principle is engaged on a 3rd main Hellblade sport, a brand new report has urged — this time with extra interactive components.
Two Hellblade titles have launched thus far, that includes celtic warrier Senua in battles in opposition to monsters and her personal psychological well being. Each have been broadly praised for his or her visuals and story, although have additionally caught flak for prioritizing cinematography over gameplay.
A brand new, third Hellblade title in growth at Ninja Principle will reply to that criticism by specializing in being extra of a “sport,” in response to Home windows Central editor Jez Corden, talking on the Xbox Two podcast. On the identical time, Corden stated that Ninja Principle was now not engaged on Challenge Mara, an “experimental title” introduced by Microsoft again in 2020.
“From what I perceive, the subsequent sport [from Ninja Theory] is Hellblade 3,” Corden stated. “And it is going to be a bit extra interactive than Hellblade 1 and a couple of.
“I do not know what the precise nature of Hellblade 3 goes to be like,” he continued, “if it is even going to be Hellblade 3, however it does sound like it is going to be within the Hellblade universe, and it does sound like they need to make it extra of a ‘sport’, y’know, and broaden the attraction to a point.”
Challenge Mara was introduced as certainly one of a number of titles being labored on at Ninja Principle again in 2020, alongside Hellblade 2, Bleeding Edge, and a separate R&D challenge described as “an bold mixture of know-how, sport design and medical neuroscience.” The years since have revealed that the studio has been working with Microsoft’s generative AI mannequin Muse as a part of a challenge that is generate clips of simulated gameplay.
Xbox Video games Collection Tier Listing
Xbox Video games Collection Tier Listing
“You guys should not anticipate Challenge Mara to be a factor,” Corden claimed. “Challenge Mara was only a idea, it is not a sport — and it is not a sport they’re at present engaged on. It may be one thing they work on finally, however Challenge Mara shouldn’t be a sport that is at present being labored on at Ninja Principle.”
Corden has since doubled down through social media on his declare that Challenge Mara was “solely ever an idea” fairly than a full sport — so subsequently “the sport wasn’t cancelled.”
Again in 2020, Ninja Principle described Challenge Mara as “our new in-development experimental title that explores new methods of storytelling.” Up to now, there’s been no additional phrase on what turned of the idea or why it was seemingly been deserted. Final 12 months, it was publicly confirmed that Group Ninja’s vibrant co-founder Tameem Antoniades had quietly left the studio, one thing that Microsoft solely acknowledged to Polygon after his absence was famous on a press go to.
IGN has contacted Microsoft for extra.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You’ll be able to attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
