What Microsoft has broadcast by closing down Tango Gameworks, developer of Hi-Fi Rush, is that it doesn’t matter if your game is beloved and well-reviewed, nor does it matter if Xbox itself says you have surpassed all its expectations, you still might be on the chopping block regardless.
The situation led to an absolutely baffling quote reportedly said by Xbox’s Matt Booty in a town hall, that they “need smaller games that give us prestige and awards,” leading everyone to scream at them that Hi-Fi Rush was exactly that. But now attention turns toward another relatively smaller game that may give them prestige and awards: Senua’s Sacrifice: Hellblade 2.
The Hellblade sequel is from talented developer Ninja Theory, with the original having come out in 2017. It seems poised to probably review well, but not be some massive breakout blockbuster because of its scope. And the idea is even if Microsoft says it’s lovely and has good “player metrics” or whatever, it cannot be trusted not to either shut Ninja Theory down or feed them into a larger studio to support some other mega-IP, as Booty has said they want to focus on their bigger franchises.
The problem with Hellblade 2 is that it is probably not being set up for success with Microsoft’s seemingly sky-high expectations for smaller games. The last numbers we have for Hellblade 1 is that it had 6.3 million players after four years. That’s players, not sales, and that includes launching on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Switch and it was also on Xbox Game pass starting in 2018.
Hellblade 2 is not Elder Scrolls or Elden Ring despite its exceptional production value and melee combat. It’s not even remotely close to those type of games. As a narrative-driven, smaller scale experience, it may follow the path of something like Alan Wake 2, which was hugely critically acclaimed but struggled to break even with its budget. Now, it’s unclear how Microsoft even measures “success” for games like Hellblade when it’s offered day one on Game Pass and is not even asking most players for an outright purchase. The idea of Game Pass is that if you like a game and you want to keep it forever, you may purchase it before or after playing. But as a one-off, relatively brief narrative experience, there’s little reason for almost anyone to do that with Hellblade here.
Hellblade panic has erupted as players realize the game is out in two weeks and they believe there has been a lack of marketing for it, a precursor for its possible failure. Xbox posting the following widely-roasted tweet seemed to reinforce the effort being put into that.
Later, Xbox Marketing VP Aaron Greenburg posted a long list of marketing rolling out for Hellblade 2 which started this week, though the fact that he had to post that at all seems like things are not in a great place at baseline in terms of community sentiment around its launch.
There are also reports that Microsoft is considering making Hellblade 2 one of the games that it ends up putting on PlayStation later, which would earn some revenue, but undermine it as an Xbox exclusive. And it would be the highest profile example of them IP-sharing to date.
The concern is pretty clear. Hellblade 2 can launch, be a good game, get good reviews, even win awards, and a studio like Ninja Theory still cannot feel safe, cannot know for sure if something like what happened with Hi-Fi Rush and Tango can happen to them. And if Microsoft reassures them that it won’t, how can they be trusted now?
Follow me on Twitter, Threads, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
