{"id":739224,"date":"2026-06-15T23:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T23:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/739224\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T23:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T23:09:11","slug":"xbox-is-closing-down-hellblade-creator-ninja-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/739224\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox is closing down Hellblade creator Ninja Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Xbox is closing down Ninja Theory, the studio behind the Hellblade series, a source tells The Verge. Staffers were told on a call on Monday about the closure, but they are hoping the studio will find a buyer. The closure comes as \u201cseveral\u201d Xbox studios at Microsoft, including Compulsion Games and Double Fine, are in \u201cactive negotiations\u201d about spinning off, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-06-15\/studios-in-microsoft-s-xbox-division-brace-for-closures?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4MTU1NDUzNiwiZXhwIjoxNzgyMTU5MzM2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUR09XOTRLSVAzTE0wMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.qu5M4E4sve-8r60rL_e-Xv-LrGJvIGgWiKLxMitTl5A\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The closure and negotiations follow Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty warning last week of <a href=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/2026\/06\/10\/next-100-days-xbox-reset\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a \u201creset\u201d at Xbox<\/a>, laying out several challenges facing Xbox\u2019s business \u2014 including that it had \u201cover extended\u201d with its studio system and the hardware component crisis is significantly driving up prices. Kotaku <a href=\"https:\/\/kotaku.com\/xbox-shuttering-south-of-midnight-peabody-award-compulsion-games-2000706065\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported earlier on Monday that<\/a> Microsoft was planning to shut down Compulsion, though it noted in an update that studio leadership was in \u201cnegotiations\u201d with Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Sharma has made many major decisions since taking over at Xbox in February, including locking down Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution as Xbox console exclusives in an announcement at its Xbox Games Showcase just over a week ago. During that event, Microsoft also revealed a new Hellblade game, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NinjaTheory\/status\/2063679747511500878\" rel=\"nofollow\">Senua<\/a>, and its future with this change is unclear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Xbox didn\u2019t immediately reply to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xbox is closing down Ninja Theory, the studio behind the Hellblade series, a source tells The Verge. Staffers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,874,44,61,6734],"class_list":["post-739224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-gaming","tag-news","tag-technology","tag-xbox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}