{"id":871913,"date":"2026-10-05T19:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T19:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/871913\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T19:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T19:08:08","slug":"hellblade-studio-ninja-theory-has-started-laying-off-staff-following-xboxs-announcement-that-it-faces-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/871913\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellblade studio Ninja Theory has started laying off staff, following Xbox\u2019s announcement that it faces closure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A number of developers from Hellblade studio Ninja Theory have started announcing that they are either being laid off or face redundancy.<\/p>\n<p>Last month <a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"Platforms &gt; Xbox [11,780 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.videogameschronicle.com\/platforms\/xbox\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Xbox<\/a> <a class=\"link-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.videogameschronicle.com\/news\/xbox-officially-announces-more-layoffs-and-widespread-changes-to-its-entire-studio-structure\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">enacted the second wave of planned cuts<\/a> as part of its business \u2018reset\u2019, a move which led to a further 268 layoffs on top of the 1,600 in the first wave.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement announcing the cuts, Xbox COO <a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"People &gt; Matt Booty [139 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.videogameschronicle.com\/people\/matt-booty\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matt Booty<\/a> also noted that an agreement couldn\u2019t be made to keep <a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"Companies &gt; Ninja Theory [146 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.videogameschronicle.com\/companies\/microsoft\/ninja-theory\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ninja Theory<\/a> open or to let it go independent, and that it faced being shut down as a result.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, two separate agreements for Ninja Theory fell through,\u201d Booty said last month. \u201cWe will now begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other paths forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It would now appear \u2013 as initially spotted by journalist <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"link-external\" href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/kerrblimey.bsky.social\/post\/3mx4xgtewec2l\">Chris Kerr<\/a> and verified by VGC \u2013 that the results of these consultations have started coming through, with some Ninja Theory employees stating on LinkedIn that they were either facing redundancy or have already lost their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Alessio Mellina (technical sound designer), Katrin Mair (gameplay programmer), Xoe Subari (PCap tech staff), Loong-Wei Ding (technical director), Matteo Tummino (sound designer), Matt Le-Fevre (senior technical artist), Pietro Berto (character artist), Justin Pedersen (technical artist) and Daniele Galante (principal sound designer) are among those who have confirmed their jobs are at risk or have ended.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter four years, it\u2019s hard to put into words how much this place and the people in it have meant to me,\u201d gameplay programmer Katrin Mair wrote. \u201cI\u2019ve learned an incredible amount, grown so much as a programmer, and had the chance to work with some genuinely brilliant people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I\u2019ll remember most is how much people cared. About the work, about the details, and about each other. I feel very lucky that this was the place where I got to start my career and grow into the programmer I am today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly sad knowing that we won\u2019t get to finish what we were working on. So much care, talent and effort went into it, and I really wish we\u2019d had the chance to see what it could have become.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fate of <a class=\"link-relationship\" title=\"Games &gt; Senua [46 articles]\" href=\"https:\/\/www.videogameschronicle.com\/games\/senua\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Senua<\/a>, the third game in the Hellblade series, has not yet been officially confirmed, but is now considered uncertain.\u00a0The game <a class=\"link-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.videogameschronicle.com\/news\/xbox-announces-the-third-game-in-the-hellblade-series-simply-titled-senua\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was announced during the Xbox Games Showcase<\/a> in June 2026, with a release set for 2027.<\/p>\n<p>It was later reported by <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"link-external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gamefile.news\/p\/xbox-studio-contraction\">Game File<\/a> that Xbox <a class=\"link-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.videogameschronicle.com\/news\/microsoft-already-planned-ninja-theory-closure-when-it-announced-senua-its-claimed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was already planning to sell Ninja Theory<\/a> at this point and was using the Senua trailer to attract attention from possible buyers, a plan that doesn\u2019t appear to have resulted in a sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of developers from Hellblade studio Ninja Theory have started announcing that they are either being laid&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-871913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}