Ninja Theory Explains Why They Accepted Microsoft’s Acquisition Offer

Hellblade developer Ninja Theory finally broke their silence on joining Microsoft Studios and why they accepted the acquisition offer of Phil Spencer.

In a video release right after the Xbox E3 2018 media briefing, Ninja Theory discussed the surprising move of Microsoft, that has announced it is purchasing the once independent development team.

“When Microsoft approached us, it was totally unexpected and not something we were really looking to do,” said creative lead Tameem Antoniades, who led the vision behind DmC Devil May Cry, Enslaved, Heavenly Sword, and Hellblade.

“Nevertheless, they asked us what our goals and ambitions were as a studio in an ideal world, and so we said we wanted to free from the AAA machine and make games focused on the experience, not around monetisation.”

“We want to take bigger creative risks, and creative genre-defining games without the constant threat of annihilation. We want to make our own games our own way, and not be told what to make and how to make it, and above all, we want to protect our team, our culture, and our identity because that, in essence, is Ninja Theory.”

“I’m now convinced this is an opportunity for us to jump years ahead, to aim higher than we’ve ever dared to, to really fly, without the threat of falling down that has held us back so much in the past,” he said.

“Hellblade was created with a small team of just 20 people and extremely limited resources,” added commercial director Dominic Matthews. “Imagine what we can now achieve with our whole team of 100 people backed by Microsoft focused purely on Ninja Theory’s vision.”

So, Microsoft has reportedly, via GamesIndustry, offered the British developer full creative control and access to platform’s marketing, research, support, and tech teams. It’ll be very interesting to see what they can do together.

It’s a rather interesting story, considering Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was originally a PlayStation 4 console exclusive and that it launched one year later on Xbox One, with a good and deep support to Xbox One X.

You can check the video below.