Following its slew of teasers and announcements, Ninja Theory, the developer of games such as “DMC: Devil May Cry” and “Enslaved: Odyssey to the West,” has been silent regarding the development status of their hyped up “independent AAA” title, “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.” Now, the developer has released a brand new trailer along with a short announcement that reveals that the game in now close to being released.
Brand new trailer
The developer, who has uniquely decided to become its own publisher, released a brand new teaser trailer for their upcoming game.
The new trailer, titled “Ragnarok,” shows off some of the worlds that the game’s protagonist will be going through, which also contains a slew of monsters and unspeakable beings that players must battle.
At the end of the trailer, the developer’s product development head, Dominic Mathews, explained to audiences their aim for the game and how they wanted to bring back the mid-sized game into the market. The game itself has apparently been developed by a relatively small team of just 20 people. Its overall content is also just half the size of regular AAA titles, but it is being sold at half the price. “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice” will be sold as a digital-only product for $29.99, which is half the price of the developer’s previous titles.
Going with an independent route
Aside from restricting the size of the game and its development team, Ninja Theory also decided to become its own publisher. The company’s previous games were published by either Capcom or Bandai Namco. Mathews explained in the video trailer that the decision to go fully digital was a necessary one to ensure that the overall cost for consumers would be low.
It was also necessary so that the money would directly be going to them instead of the publishers, which they plan to use to reinvest in new titles. If the move will prove to be successful for them, then it would be possible that other developers would follow suit. This would most likely translate to cheaper and richer games in the coming future.
Official release
“Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice” is scheduled to be released on Aug. 8 for the PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. The game itself follows the story of Senua, played by Melina Juergens, as she journeys through a vision quest into the depths of Hell based on Celtic and Norse mythology to find her dead lover. The game is hyped up to contain strong character stories, unique art, and an intricate combat system.
