Ninja Theory is gearing up to place its upcoming game Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. It is a sequel to 2017’s action-adventure Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Ninja Theory, being a subsidy of Microsoft, will be published by Xbox Game Studios, thus skipping a PlayStation release.
Hellblade 2 is expected to feature stunning visuals and an immersive story. While the game has been eagerly awaited by fans for quite some time, some players have been upset about one thing. And that is the runtime of the game.
Hellblade 2 has a shorter narrative and runtime
Microsoft, the owner of Ninja Theory, during the January 2024 Xbox Developer Direct revealed that the game would cost $49.99. Besides, they also revealed that the game will not have a physical edition and that it will be of similar length to the predecessor. That implies the latest game will clock in around 9 hours.
The thing that upset fans was, according to GamingBolt, the sequel is supposed to be 9 hours long which is slightly less than the previous game. However, the previous game was sold at a price of $29.99 while the sequel is priced at $49.99.
In a recent interview with IGN, Ninja Theory studio head Dom Matthews addressed the issue of the game having a short runtime and short narrative. He said,
“What I would say as well though is that I think that since digital distribution has become a thing, it has opened the industry up to games of all shapes and sizes, which I think is really great. So I’m really pleased to see that there’s a lot of people that actually enjoy a shorter experience, something that they can sit down on a whatever Friday night, stick their headphones on, turn the lights off and kind of sink into an experience and players who don’t necessarily want something that is 50 hours long, a 100 hours long, so it’s as long as it needs to be. And I’m one of those people, I like shorter games.”
He added that people nowadays face pressure with regard to time. Matthews also shared that based on the feedback they hear from fans, they enjoy a shorter game. Meanwhile, their intention is to make every step of that journey meaningful.
He added,
“I think what we always set out to do is to tell a story and for the game length to be appropriate for the story that we want to tell. So it’s not really a case of setting out to make shorter experiences. I think it is… There is a story that we want to tell here with a beginning, middle and end and what is the right shape and size of experience to tell that story? So that’s kind of where we start.”
Matthews further claims that there is an audience of gamers who want their games to be more focused and short.
Ninja Theory defines what success is to them
That being said, Matthews also revealed what success truly is for Ninja Theory. He said there are many measures of success of Hellblade 2’s success for the team.
Matthews elaborates,
“I think for us as a studio, well my focus as well as studio head is how can we empower the team here, the artists here to go and create an experience, and how do we get it out to the widest possible audience?”
He added,
“I think success for us is, we would love for as many players to play our games as possible, but I think particularly with Hellblade we love and I love that magic that you can achieve by creating something that makes people think and feel. So if I think about the things that I want to achieve in Hellblade 2, once it’s released, the thing that will put the biggest smile on my face is to see fans of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and people who like those kind of game saying you’ve continued Senua’s journey in a way that is worthy of that character.”
After being initially announced back in 2019, Hellblade 2 is set to release on Xbox Series X/S consoles and PC on May 24, 2021.
