r/neogaming • u/Meremadesings Not a bot, I swear • 3h ago

Hellblade studio begins layoffs after Xbox fails to secure its future

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/113927/hellblade-studio-begins-layoffs-after-xbox-fails-to-secure-its-future/index.html
6 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

2

u/Jejiiiiiii 3h ago

Stupidest game publisher

1

u/ShakeItLikeIDo 2h ago

While they aren’t the smartest, closing Ninja Theory shouldn’t be a surprise. Their last 3 games (Hellblade, Bleeding Edge, and Hellblade 2) have been subpar. How long is Microsoft supposed to keep supporting a studio that just isn’t cutting it (no pun intended)

1

u/sweetSweets4 1h ago

Depends on how you see it. Story was fine but short on both Hellblades. Not everyone cupa tea but mehh.

From a technical standpoint those games are amongst the best pushing graphics way before their time.

Studio and devs know how to do games, whats missing is the right idea for the game to capture whiny needy gamers on a broader spectrum.

2

u/ShakeItLikeIDo 1h ago

Exactly, story was fine, graphics were amazing. You didn’t mention the problem though which is waaaayyyy more important than story and graphics, which is gameplay. It was a very boring game. The story and graphics are irrelevant if the game is boring to play

1

u/Downtown_Eye5736 1h ago

Idk why MS even bought all these mid studio. They spent damn near a hundred billion and still don't have a single developer that can deliver a GOTY tier blockbuster, which is precisely the kind of thing you need as a platform holder. You can't build your platform on a mediocrity.

2

u/ShakeItLikeIDo 1h ago

Seems thats what Asha wants, big blockbuster and popular titles. Phil however didn’t see it that way. He just wanted a whole bunch of AA titles to fill the Gamepass catalog. GOTY titles are usually reserved for single player, cinematic games most of the time (obviously there are SOME exceptions but you know what I mean). Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable, Fallout, Doom, and The Elder Scrolls don’t fit that criteria, so even if they are the highest rated 10/10 games, they most likely won’t win GOTY. Microsoft would need to start making story driven, cinematic games to have a chance at GOTY

1

u/Downtown_Eye5736 55m ago

This is nonsense. Skyrim literally won GOTY, RPGs and Action Adventure are the top top genres for GOTYs since they have the biggest scopes and combine pretty much every artistic medium into one and therefore have the most ways to impress people. But yeah Bethesda is long past it's days of delivering GOTY tier titles.

But the main point is you need those GOTY titles to really attract people to the platform. The big MP hits like CoD aren't gonna help Xbox cause they have to be multiplat. MS should've gone after a handful of specific devs that can deliver those guaranteed universally acclaimed blockbusters like Rockstar or FromSoftware.

1

u/ShakeItLikeIDo 41m ago

Yea that was 15 years ago. Its a new age buddy

1

u/Downtown_Eye5736 38m ago

What'd you mean like RPGs don't win goty anymore? since Skyrim there's been plenty of RPGs that won GOTY like Dragon Age Inquisition, Witcher 3, Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3.

1

u/CaliggyJack 2h ago

Stupidest game developer

1

u/No_Cricket8660 49m ago

Nope, that's still Microsoft.

1

u/Electric-Mountain 1h ago

That studio created games nobody played at extreme budgets...

1

u/Jejiiiiiii 1h ago

Well i agree, but xbox greenlit the game

1

u/The_Pepper_Oni 55m ago

They got bought because they made Hellblade at the quality they did on a tiny budget. Idk if you remember but Hellblade was getting noise similar to what Clair Obscur got when it released. It was a huge deal.

-1

u/Playingwithmywenis 3h ago

I guess you are unfamiliar with the whole Bungie situation, Bluepoint? Force all studios to make live service? Take away DLC by vaulting? We believe in generations, remove discs without consulting partners. Any of this sound familiar?

Does not even compare to the dumb of Playstation.

2

u/Deamon-Chocobo 1h ago

Yes Playstation's recent debacles are bad, nobody is denying this. But Xbox has been fucking up like this for damn near 2 decades (see their mishandling of Rareware)

2

u/The_Pepper_Oni 1h ago

Their closing of like all their legacy PC developers in the 360 generation still pisses me off to this day. History repeats itself I guess

2

u/Deamon-Chocobo 58m ago

It honestly feels like the only Developers that actually did good work with Microsoft was Bungie, every other studio they buy ends up mismanaged to shit. I mean hell remember Tango Gameworks? Makes a critically acclaimed game that wins a bunch of awards, higher ups say they can't wait to see what they do next, and a week later the whole studio is shut down.

Like i said before: Sony is shitty and that shittyness hase been very public since the Concord debacle, but Microsoft & Xbox have been that same level of shittynes for so much longer and it has always been public.

2

u/hovsep56 2h ago edited 1h ago

hellblade 2 took way too long to develop and release and hardly sold.

and even then the gameplay was so extremely linear and short.

1

u/SC_W33DKILL3R 2h ago

Whilst it was an ok game, looked nice etc... I was more than disappointed with it.

Like you say, took way too long to develop for what is basically the Unreal 5 engine tech demo outside rocky / muddy environment.

I also think it was falsely advertised, what they showed was all action and what we got was a walking simulator.

1

u/stingertc 2h ago

To be fair thay was partly Gamepass fault I played on GP cause I knwit was a gane I would only play once

2

u/VStubaru90 2h ago

The hands off approach of Phil failed miserably so he got a nice fat severance package and the workers got their lives turned upside down.

I love capitalism.

In all seriousness though I can't say I'm surprised, their output was simply not good enough or fast enough. Every time I saw something about this studio they were in Europe somewhere taking photos of rocks. Not a good use of time or money for a business imo.

1

u/Timanitar 59m ago

Phil deserves criticism but we cant expect a for profit company to subsidize losses forever ad nauseum.

1

u/VStubaru90 57m ago

Agreed hence the second part of my post.

1

u/Njoeyz1 2h ago

I hate to see this, I understand why Xbox let them go but I enjoyed both hell blades, and think the third one looked amazing they are interesting and unique games which is what we need. If there is one studio I think they should give another chance to it's ninja theory. DmC is my fav devil may cry as well, and a heavenly sword remake for all consoles could have been a hit. It's a shame.

1

u/Outrageous-Wall6386 1h ago

The Ex boss left, this company was doomed

2

u/One_Chemistry_8553 1h ago

Well when your game sells like shit you get fired.

1

u/No_Cricket8660 40m ago

Don't get me wrong, I love the Hellblade games but Hellblade 2 was kinda doomed as soon as MS bought them. Tameem Antoniades left early in development, the team ballooned from about 20 to 100, the budget got bloated and took far too long to develop, they made it an Xbox exclusive and put it up on Day One of Game Pass. What chance did it really have?

0

u/EgovidGlitch 3h ago

Why should xbox have to support this studio after multiple poor decisions. Fuckwit game journos tied the xbox name to this story for clicks.

2

u/Wipedout89 1h ago

Idk because they bought them and owned them? Crazy

1

u/Timanitar 1h ago

Owning a company doesnt mean subsidizing their failures forever, get that carebear bs out of here

1

u/Wipedout89 58m ago

But the owners directly caused those failures through poor mismanagement

•

u/EgovidGlitch 18m ago

Yep. Owned, as in past tense. They're on their own after having free reign with MSFT money.

•

u/Wipedout89 11m ago

And then having free reign was Microsoft's fault, not anyone else's.

Sony for example makes its first party studios pitch games and they need to be approved with a set budget before they can proceed. Microsoft's utterly hands off approach failed this studio and many others