Ninja Theory

Ninja Theory is a developer and publisher.

Ninja Theory Webpage, Facebook

Ninja Theory is a British game development studio based in Cambridge. The company’s games are available on consoles, PC, and mobile devices. Since June 2018, the studio has been part of Microsoft.

History

Beginnings as Just Add Monsters

Ninja Theory traces its roots back to March 2000, when the team operated under the name Just Add Monsters. The company was founded by Mike Ball, Nina Kristensen, and Tameem Antoniades, former employees of Sony Computer Entertainment (now Sony Interactive Entertainment). The team’s independence was short-lived; in October, it was acquired by Argonaut Games. In 2003, the team released its first game - Kung Fu Chaos - as an Xbox exclusive. Shortly afterward, the studio’s parent company encountered financial difficulties. However, the team managed to regain its independence. This marks the true beginning of Ninja Theory’s story.

Regaining independence and the long road to fame

Within a relatively short time, the team established a partnership with Sony. This collaboration resulted in Heavenly Sword – a PlayStation 3 exclusive that hit store shelves in 2007. The game impressed primarily with its excellent graphics, its high quality embodied by incredibly detailed facial animations. The cast also made an impression - with Andy Serkis, best known for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films, standing out among the performers. Despite fairly positive reviews, the game didn’t achieve financial success, forcing the team to put a sequel on hold.

Fans had to wait nearly three years for Ninja Theory’s next release. Unlike Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was released on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with Bandai Namco Entertainment handling the launch. The developers followed the path set by their previous game - Andy Serkis was again heavily involved (this time as the protagonist), and the gameplay largely stuck to the classic slasher formula. Like its predecessor, the game struggled commercially during its first few months on the market. However, it eventually attracted over a million players worldwide, and in 2013, the PC version was released.

DmC: Devil May Cry - the new incarnation of Dante

Thanks to the high quality of Ninja Theory’s games, Capcom decided to collaborate with the studio. In 2010, a reboot of the best-selling Devil May Cry series, titled DmC: Devil May Cry, was officially announced. For this reboot, the developers opted for major changes - not just to the story and the main character’s look, but also to the completely overhauled combat system. The new features didn’t sit well with everyone; die-hard fans mainly criticized the drop in frame rate, as previous entries ran at 60 fps while the reboot ran at 30 fps. The game was released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013, and a year later, it was remastered as the Definitive Edition by the Polish company QLOC. It’s worth noting that Fightback, Ninja Theory’s first mobile game, also launched that year, though it largely flew under the radar.

Finding a new path

In the following years, the studio focused on experimenting with new approaches. In 2017, DEXED, a rail shooter designed for virtual reality headsets, was released. Additionally, since 2014, the studio has been developing Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (initially known as Hellblade), which was announced at Gamescom that year.

In many ways, it stands as one of the studio’s most ambitious projects. The game is set in a world inspired by Celtic mythology, with the protagonist, Senua, struggling with mental illness. To portray the protagonist’s condition accurately, the developers consulted with doctors and people living with disorders such as schizophrenia. The game debuted on PlayStation 4 and PC in August 2017. It launched on Xbox One on April 11, 2018, and a year later on Nintendo Switch, with the Switch port developed in collaboration with the Polish company QLOC. The game was a major commercial and critical success, earning numerous awards.

Under Microsoft's control

In June 2018, Microsoft announced that Ninja Theory had joined its family of studios. The studio, however, was set to maintain full creative independence.

The first project developed after the acquisition was Bleeding Edge, announced a year later - a multiplayer action game focused on close-quarters combat between two teams of four players. The game launched on PC and Xbox One on March 24, 2020.

Meanwhile, in December 2019, Ninja Theory revealed Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Although the game was designed to showcase the capabilities of Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox Series X, it was also planned to release on PC. In January 2020, the studio announced another new project. Project: MARA was described as an experimental horror game focused on psychological terror, with the team drawing on scientific research to shape the experience.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was released in May 2024. The game launched to strong reviews, earning an average Metacritic score of 81/100 for both the Xbox Series X/S and PC versions. Unfortunately, these high scores didn’t translate into comparable popularity, at least on PC. At its peak on release day, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II had fewer than 4,000 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. This was even lower than the widely regarded commercial flop Redfall, which launched with over 6,000 concurrent players on Steam. It’s worth noting, however, that Steam players gave the second Hellblade “very positive” reviews around its launch.

Meanwhile, in April 2024, unofficial reports emerged that one of the studio’s founders, Tameem Antoniades, was leaving Ninja Theory. The reports were soon confirmed by Antoniades himself, who revealed that he had originally planned to leave right after the release of the first Hellblade, but stayed on for two more years to help with the studio’s transition under Microsoft. Moreover, in May 2024, rumors surfaced that the studio had received the green light from its parent company to develop one more project, in addition to Project: MARA0.