"Even if I knew how it would end, I would do it again": Hellblade developers Ninja Theory appear to have kicked off the redundancy process

"It’s incredibly sad knowing that we won’t get to finish what we were working on"

Following Microsoft's recent reveal that Hellblade makers Ninja Theory would be facing closure, with two deals to buy them after their split from Xbox have fallen through, the studio look to be in the process of informing staff they're at risk of being let go.

As spotted by ex-Game Developer journalist Chris Kerr, a number of Ninja Theory developers have posted on LinkedIn that they're at risk of redundancy and/or are looking for new opportunities.

"After almost 12 years at Ninja Theory, my role here is now at risk of redundancy" wrote dev Alessio Mellina. "I'm now on the lookout for new opportunities. As the only Technical Sound Designer here at Ninja, I've been the owner of most of our dynamic audio systems on recent projects, with a strong focus on UE Blueprint scripting and Wwise integration. Feel free to reach out if you think my profile could be a good fit for your tech audio needs."

Well, so ends my time at Ninja Theory," posted performance capture tech Xoe Suvari. "It's taken me a while to decide what to say about working here, and I still have to borrow the words of a friend and fellow Ninja: Even if I knew how it would end, I would do it again."

Meanwhile, gameplay programmer Katrin Mair mourned that the Senua game the studio had in the works will seemingly be left to rot (its fate has yet to be formally confirmed). "It’s incredibly sad knowing that we won’t get to finish what we were working on," she wrote. "So much care, talent and effort went into it, and I really wish we’d had the chance to see what it could have become. Mostly, I just want to say thank you to everyone I worked with over the last four years. For everything you taught me, all the problems we figured out together, all the laughs, and for making Ninja somewhere I genuinely loved being."

Technical director Loong-Wei Ding, sound designers Matteo Tummino and Daniele Galante, senior technical artist Matt Le-Fevre, and character artist Pietro Berto all posted about redundancies or looking for new work last week. The gradual dripfeed of devs confirming they're on the chopping block could hint that staff are being informed in waves or could just be a legacy of some deciding to take the weekend to let things sink in before going public with their specific situations.

Solidarity to the Ninja Theory staff affected.