‘Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice’ won’t erupt from the underworld until 2017

By Gabe Gurwin December 1, 2016

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice | Production Update

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, developer Ninja Theory’s unique action game blending the studio’s signature combat with dark subject matter concerning mental illness, will no longer arrive in 2016.

“We’re making great progress with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, but not quite great enough,” Ninja Theory producer Dominic Matthews said in the announcement video. “So Hellblade will now be released in 2017.”

Matthews cited a canceled project at the studio as one of the primary reasons for the game’s delay. It’s unclear if the canceled game had previously been revealed — back in August, the developer detailed a project titled “Razer” that never went into production. The game would have be a “massively co-op sci-fi adventure” designed to satisfy a publisher’s “desirable feature list.” Perhaps it’s best that something created for that reason never got off the ground.

A collaboration with Epic Games to create realistic performance capture was another one of the reasons behind the delay, as well as generally slower-than-expected progress. However, as Ninja Theory is self-publishing Hellblade, this doesn’t come along with the usual publisher baggage that plagues AAA titles.

“Rushing the game out for release or compromising on quality is not something we’re willing to entertain,” Matthews added. “It may seem like Hellblade is taking a long time to create. This is because we chose to announce the game right at the beginning of development to bring you on this journey with us. If we had chosen the usual publisher approach, we’d be announcing the game around now.”

Hellblade will arrive in 2017 for PlayStation 4 and PC. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Ninja Theory’s previous project, the underrated DmC: Devil May Cry, be sure to give it a chance. It’s available on both last-gen systems and current-gen systems as DmC: Devil May Cry — Definitive Edition.”

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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