Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is Microsoft's first big first-party game launch for 2024. Today, a number of articles with hands-on previews of the third-person action-adventure game from developer Ninja Theory hit the internet. However, there are a couple of interesting developments that have been revealed about Hellblade II from those previews.
Polygon reports that Tameem Antoniades, the founder of Ninja Theory and the writer and director for the first Hellblade game, is no longer with the development studio, according to a Microsoft spokesperson. No explanation was given for why he departed. Antoniades's Instagram page currently lists him as "Founder & Chief Creative @ Ninja Theory" and there's no announcement from that page about him leaving the team.
Polygon adds that, according to Microsoft, Antoniades was only involved in the early development of Hellblade 2. Now, three people at Ninja Theory, environment art director Dan Attwell, visual effects director Mark Slater-Tunstill, and audio director David Garcia, are labeled as the creative leads for the game.
Another interesting thing about Hellblade 2 is that the Xbox console versions will be locked at 30fps with dynamic resolution and no other graphic mode options. This comes from the Germany-based site GamePro.de.
The article says that Ninja Theory made this decision because it wanted the game to have a "cinematic" look (movies are typically shown at 24fps). The PC version will give players the option to go beyond 30fps. To be fair, the GamePro article stated the frame rate limit "didn't bother me during the playback session."
Microsoft previously stated that Hellblade 2 would be a digital-only game release, with the standard version priced at $49.99. The game will be released for Xbox Series X and S consoles, along with the PC, on May 21. It will also be a Day One release on PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass.
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