Hellblade 2 seemingly set to release soon as Phil Spencer teases "We don't have much longer to wait"

The Xbox boss has praised developer Ninja Theory and says he "loves how the game is coming together".

[PrinceOfAnger]

2024
Will be amazing year for PC

Hellblade 2
Stalker 2
Flight sim 24
Avowed
horizon forbidden west
Clockwork Revolution
If only CIG release Squadron 42 soon

Last year was good too with
Hi fi rush
starfield
Forza
Last of us remake.

[MrNinosan]

And probably FFXVI and FFVII Rebirth as well

[BehindTheRows]

Rebirth would be at least a year, so no.

XVI, most likely, but until late in the year.

[S2Killinit]

you’re missing some games, there

[Lightning77]

Exec says they're excited for said game does nothing for me, but bring it I say. It's been ages since they had games that's story driven focus and this game has been in the pipeline for 4 years.

Let's see it already.

[Crows90]

Phil likes to talk big about games he has little to do with...and when theyve got a decent game he just shadow drops it assuming its not that good...hi fi rush is a prime example.

He talked really well about starfield and was surprised about redfall....before throwing the dev team under the bus of course.

[Obscure_Observer]

@Crows90

"Phil likes to talk big about games he has little to do with..."

Phil has a 100% Hellblade completion, he´s not a clueless gamer talking out of his a$$ like you do. He loves that game and Senua was one of the very reasons he acquired Ninja Theory in the first place.

He was the one who saw that team´s potential, he was the one who approach them with an offer to become an Xbox first party studio, by turning a small studio formerly made of 20 people into an full blown AAA Studio made of about 200 people.

Phil is the one who made sure tand put Senua into the spotlight since the Xbox Series X reveal.

She is the current Xbox generation poster girl! Not Master Chief, not Marcus Fenix, not Kait, and definitely not some weird Minecraft character.

You may hate the guy. But give credit when credit is due.

Ninja Theory have a history as a Playstation second party studio and yet SIE never cared about them enough to make them part of the Playstation family! You, as a Playstation fan, should be mad at Sony for letting Ninja Theory slip through their f* fingers!

If we were dependent on Sony, Hellblade II woudn´t ever exist.

"He talked really well about starfield and was surprised about redfall....before throwing the dev team under the bus of course."

Starfield is a great game which sits at 83 Metascore, which is higher than some of Playstation first party games that you praise to the heavens, so spare us from your hypocrisy.

After Redfall´s massive flop at launch, Phil not only allowed the team to continue and fix their mess in the game, but greenlit a new AAA game from Arkane Austin which is already in development.

Sony on the other hand, shut down Pixel Opus which were working on an unannounced PS5 AAA game in collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation since 2021 after Concret Genie.

Talk about "throwing the dev team under the bus"

But hey, feel free do defend and sugar coat Sony on their greedy bs, by cutting off creative studios to favor and pursue some GaaS nonsense!

[Crows90]

@obscure

Aside from you pathetic insults..grow up.

"You may hate the guy. But give credit when credit is due."
I give credit to the playstation base which made the game successful. I completed the game as well. Didnt 100% only because I missed a couple of runes or whatever those lore points were. It is a one and done game like most single player games so I ddint bother...especially with the lackluster combat.

I also give credit to Playstation for Heavenly Sword which really put their style in the spotlight. Those monologues come from that playstation exclusive so yeah...definitely not avoiding giving credit.

If Hellblade 2 isnt successful I'll make sure to credit Phil...and random stats wont cut it.

"You, as a Playstation fan, should be mad at Sony for letting Ninja Theory slip through their f* fingers!"
Nope. Im not you. No reason to be mad. I wasnt bothered by MS purchase of Ninja Theory. they can buy all they want..its bad for the industry though and im worried for the survival of those devs more than anything.

But I've no doubt youre as ignorant as you sound. Im a gamer that plays mostly on PC nowadays. Im a good games fan...which is why I dont fall for MS average games like fanboys as yourself do.

"Starfield is a great game which sits at 83 Metascore, which is higher than some of Playstation first party games that you praise to the heavens, so spare us from your hypocrisy."

Which game do I praise to the high heavens? Stop making things up. Im currently praising remnant 2 a lot but thats not 1st party. And im playing that on steam.

"But hey, feel free do defend and sugar coat Sony on their greedy bs, by cutting off creative studios to favor and pursue some GaaS nonsense!"

What GaaS game has sony released? I mustve missed it.

As far as PixelOpus...Do I have some kind of loyalty to these guys? Did sony say that their vision sucked and was bad? No.

Phil said some crappy things about arkane though to deflect from his poor ass leadership...so yeah. Thats the problem and thats why im concerned with all the other perfectly fine studios making games that were more successful on playstation than on xbox.

"If we were dependent on Sony, Hellblade II woudn´t ever exist."
The very definition of talking out of your A$$

[S2Killinit]

At this point with MS, they need to put out or shut up.

[Lightning77]

Hi Fi Rush is not example of anything. The shadow drop was done by the studios head because it viral internally. HB2 happened because MS bought NT. No MS didn't make the IP of Hellblade but they're fully funding the sequel which is what a publisher is suppose to do right?

I have no clue where u got your info from.

[Obscure_Observer]

"I give credit to the playstation base which made the game successful"

BS!

Hellblade is a multi platform game beloved across all platforms including Xbox, PC and Nintendo! So gtfo with your lying bs, because if there´s someone hating on that game now that it´s an Xbox first party IP is the PS fanboys! Just look at the comments, it´s mostly PS fanboys like yourself calling that game mediocre, lackluster and nothing special, while pretending that they don´t understand the hype surrounding Hellblade II.

Bunch of hypocrites pretending to love story driven single player games when in reality they hate it if those aren´t on Playstation!

"I also give credit to Playstation for Heavenly Sword which really put their style in the spotlight."

Another IP which Sony didn´t gave a f*! Wheres the sequel?! Congratulations I guess?

"If Hellblade 2 isnt successful I'll make sure to credit Phil...and random stats wont cut it."

Get a grip in reality, dude. Your opinion means nothing and nobody gives a flying f* about what PS fanboys think about Phil and Xbox first party games.

"I wasnt bothered by MS purchase of Ninja Theory. they can buy all they want..its bad for the industry though and im worried for the survival of those devs more than anything."

Are you? Both RARE and Mojang has been active as Xbox first studios for longer than they previously had as third party independent studios. RARE completed 21 years as an Xbox first party studio while Mojang is about to complete 10 years!

The source of your fake concern is not objectively based on track record, but blind fanboy drivel and hate.

[Obscure_Observer]

The source of your fake concern is not objectively based on track record, but blind fanboy drivel and hate.

"But I've no doubt youre as ignorant as you sound. Im a gamer that plays mostly on PC nowadays"

You are a PS fanboy, don´t even try to deny it. Nobody falls for your "I´m PC gamer" crap, dude. The reason you might be playing mostly on PC nowadays is because you actually don´t have many games to play on your preferred platform.

"Im a good games fan...which is why I dont fall for MS average games like fanboys as yourself do."

And yet you´re here. Wasting your time and talking crap about an "average" XBOX GAME! Quit this childish game, dude. You have nothing to be excited about. That´s why you´re all over Xbox games, you´re just sad and boring. Smh.

"Which game do I praise to the high heavens? Stop making things up. Im currently praising remnant 2 a lot but thats not 1st party. And im playing that on steam."

Which sits at 80 at Metacritic while Starfield sits at 83 Metacritic. You can´t make shit up

"What GaaS game has sony released? I mustve missed it."

Don´t worry, they have 11 GaaS games currently in development. You´ll have plenty to play very soon.

"As far as PixelOpus...Do I have some kind of loyalty to these guys? Did sony say that their vision sucked and was bad? No."

Actions speaks louder. Pixel Opus got the Axe in the middle of development of a PS5 AAA game! Sony did´t even bother to gave that studio a public message and thanking them for all of their passionated work and love for creativity. They quietly shut that studio down, and when IGN reached SIE to talk about it, that what Sony said:

“PlayStation Studios regularly evaluates its portfolio and the status of studio projects to ensure they meet the organization’s short and long-term strategic objectives,” the company told IGN. “As part of a recent review process, it has been decided that PixelOpus will close on June 2.”

Again, zero gratitude and empathy for its developers! That´s the company you love! That how your favorite company treats creative first party developers!

https://kotaku.com/pixelopu...

"The very definition of talking out of your A$$"

Sony couldn´t be bothered and release a Heavenly Sword sequel, why would they even bother with a sequel for Hellblade which used to be a third party IP? Face the damn facts! Sony never gave a damn about Ninja Theory! It is what it is.

Thanks to Phil Spencer Senua fans will live to see a proper sequel to Hellblade. A true current gen AAA game that hopefully will turn out into another masterpiece and win multiple awards, just like the first game.

[Crows90]

Phil loved crackdown 3.

Just saying. Theres no one else other than the xbox boss constantly yammering about how great certain games in the pipeline are...Show dont tell.

Let ninja theory do the talking dude.

[PrinceOfAnger]

mark cerny and others loved knack

[Crows90]

Did he? Or did he just like the tech behind it?

I love how you put 'and others' clearly not naming the PlayStation boss. You know the one, like Phil, who is supposed to be responsible for everything their devs make and who gets a pretty good say about the games the their devs make.

[ModsDoBetter]

Lol uno reverse. 😂
For what it's worth, I enjoyed Knack.

[Einhander1972]

I have never understood the vitriol towards Knack. It was a family friendly game parents could buy with the PS4 that kids could play that launched with the console. And honestly it had pretty fun gameplay, there was good enemy variety and the art style that was styled like old Japanese cartoons was pretty good.

It's so weird how just because a game is for kids it's seen as bad, not just knack but in general.

The whole thing where every game has to be made just for one demographic is bad for the industry and creativity.

[S2Killinit]

Yeah but phil hyped up games like redfall and starfield to heaven’s end. At least Sony lets their games do the talking.

[Obscure_Observer]

"Did he? Or did he just like the tech behind it?"

Lol!

Mark Cerny is not other but KNACK´s director, genius!

It´s HIS game! XD

[Crows90]

Yes. And of course hes going to "like it" my comment which you quoted mentions what he probably actually liked about it and would gush about at its time. The tech behind it.

But thanks for making @PrinceofAnger look even dumber...A developer of a game liking their game...who woulda thunk.

Point is Phil talks big about games he hasnt made all of the time. Most of them being a disappointment.

[Obscure_Observer]

@Crows90

"But thanks for making @PrinceofAnger look even dumber...A developer of a game liking their game...who woulda thunk."

You didn´t even knew that Mark Cerny made that game, dude. And yet, you have the nerve to call people dumb rather than acknowledge your own ignorance . Such "Playstation fan" your are. Smdh.

[SimpleSlave]

Ninja Theory's best game was, oddly enough, DMC. Everything else have been mediocre at best. Enslaved could've been great but fell flat and the first Hellblade was laughably bad where it matters, the gampleay.

So they have a shet ton to prove before getting excited about this. Will the gameplay suffer even more now that the graphics have taken a massive presedent? We'll see. But so far, the gameplay they've shown was beyond underwhelming.

This is poised to be another Ryse or The Order 1886; A visual feast and shallow as a puddle. I'll be shocked otherwise.

[MrNinosan]

Heavenly Sword was amazing

[SimpleSlave]

...ly bad. Yes.

While having impressive technical feats such as the animation and motion capture, and Andy Serkis' scenery chewing performance never fails to be glorious, the game also suffered from bad game design, bad level design and shallow gameplay that felt outdated the moment the game came out. Which made for a pretty but shallow and boring experience.

Oh, and those damn QTE and Slow Motion Projectile Cam sections. The joy... 😐

Sadly, Heavenly Sword is a lineal, shallow, beautiful but ultimately boring game that came and went for good reasons. And while it was mercifully short it also felt too damn long. Like a Demo or Proof of Concept that got out of hands.

[Elda]

Clearly your opinion. Imo...Heavenly Sword was a fab game, it's flaw was that the game was too short.

[SimpleSlave]

Clearly...or is it? The game has shallow combat, brain dead AI, lineal and bland level design, QTEs and extremely repetitive and boring slow motion sections. While other better games certainly share some of the same traits, they do try to compensate in other aspects at least. Ninja Theory simply thought that pretty graphics and animation, with Ham Serkis, would somehow be enough to do the trick. It didn't.

I think it's ok to like bad stuff. I do. We all do. And there's nothing wrong with that. Just learn to be conscious about it is all I'm saying.

But hey, that's just a Theory...

[AdonisIsBeast]

Crazy that some xbox fanatics are excited for this. The franchise is mid at best and they’ve been developing this for over 6 years.

And it’s not even a large RPG with intricate systems or anything of the sort. It’s a linear action adventure game.

[__SteakDeck__]

Xbox fanboys for years have thrashed PS exclusives for being “one and done”, linear “interactive movies”, “walking simulators”. They better keep that same energy for this, but we know they won’t. Lol

[outsider1624]

The exact words from Sparky was "cookie cutter story driven games" lol.

Lets see what he has to say about Hellblade now..

[Prubar]

It’s not that third person character action games are “bad”. It’s that’s all current Sony seems to be interested in making. I found PlayStation was way more interesting during the PS3 era. At least during that time they had multiplayer elements to their games. Now nodda.

[Obscure_Observer]

"They better keep that same energy for this, but we know they won’t. Lol"

We won´t.

I love Hellblade and The Last of Us is one of my TOP 3 games of all time. Also, despite Metascore, I also like The Order 1886 a lot and I think Sony is dumb for not giving that franchise another go.

We´re gamers. We welcome all types of games and gaming genres and, fortunately for us, Xbox first party studios got all the gaming genres covered, as it should.

[ModsDoBetter]

That's an interesting flip.

Before Hellblade 2 was announced and Xbox exclusive, all I ever heard was PS and Xbox fans giving the game high praise.

Interesting that it's being downplayed now...

[S2Killinit]

They haven’t had anything at all so its understandable that they get excited for anything.

[Terry_B]

He was also excited for Redfall, right? And for Crackdown 3 ;)

[Charlieboy333]

And Halo Infinite....

[PrinceOfAnger]

Halo Infinite is 87 on MC Is this bad?
It's higher than killzone shadow fall ,
death stranding
ghost of tsushima first release.

[mkis007]

Halo infinite is more about how the mighty have fallen vs actually being a terrible game. It was the franchise the supported Xbox through Reach.

[Charlieboy333]

@Prince We all know it doesn't deserve close to that 87 and is the lowest effort, most disappointing Halo ever. Even hardcore Halo fans admit it. A new Halo used to be an event that pushed boundaries in visuals ( yes visuals were ALWAYS top notch before Infinite ) and gameplay. Infinite just sort of came and went without much impact at all. It should have looked like that 'in engine' ( lol ) Slipspace trailer and the way Phil was gushing over it before Craig's big debut, everyone was expecting big things. But it was ( and still is ) just not good enough. Deserves a 70 at most.

[PrinceOfAnger]

Honestly i wasn't impressed with any halo games visually it's not crysis, but i liked the gameplay in Infinite
i had so much fun with it i gave it 9/10 good game definitely better game than killzone shadow fall it was a mess and so boring 70 is deserved

[PrinceOfAnger]

He was also excited for Redfall, right? And for Crackdown 3 ;)"

Wasn't some of sony dudes excited for knack
And it's lower than both games you mentioned
54 mc ?

[ironmonkey]

LOL yup and hyped about its physics and the cloud IBM dell docking aluminum titanium water liquid emporium sentinel tech.

[BillyCrystals]

If you're going to force me to play as a woman, at least make her hot. Daddy wants some eye candy amirite

[DarXyde]

As with anything out of Phil the PR Dis-Spencer, wait for reality instead of listening to this guy.

Do I think they'll drop new hardware? Probably. They've got the hybrid console thing allegedly in development, but plans do change and they may well change plans there; alternatively, these plans were not formally announced and they can deny ever wanting to pursue it. I think the only thing stopping them from dropping out of hardware entirely is Sony and Nintendo not allowing XGP on their platforms. If they got the go ahead, I imagine they wouldn't even bother with another console. Hardware really isn't profitable for Microsoft. When things don't work out for them, they're pretty abrupt with killing platforms. Zune? Windows Phone? Kinect? Kinect is different, but Zune and Windows Phone were competing with a sea of alternatives: other portable media players, better phones.

They're more stubborn with gaming, I suspect, because competition is limited. And when you go out of your way to drop ELEVEN FIGURES on publisher acquisitions, you're really trying to eat the space. It's a thriving entertainment economy, and they want a cut—one that you'll be paying for in perpetuity because they're the king of subs.

Microsoft is more than happy to focus solely on software as a recurring payment. They would definitely drop hardware if they could get XGP on playstation and Nintendo. And once they shift over to AI-developed game development and fire the bulk of their teams, I'm curious to hear how people will defend that.

A lot of people are willfully ignorant of what is their blatant strategy, but they'll endorse it because Microsoft or some parasocial attachment to an exec with a very punchable face.

In short, plans for a next Xbox are very likely dependent on how much their contemporaries are willing to entertain XGP on their platforms. I hope not at all and they tell them to kick rocks, but who knows?

[Stevonidas]

Phil Spencer is the Jim Cramer of gaming.

[lucasnooker]

Phil spencer doesn’t know anything about what good games are lol. Otherwise we’d be getting more than mediocre crap on the platform

[Rikimaru-00]

this game better be good. the first one was average.

[YourMommySpoils]

Ouch. i can see how this going to go.

[Ironmike]

I'll give it go first game was good

[__y2jb]

The first game was all kinds of meh

[Ironmike]

To u maybe I like it and so did a lot of other ppl hence the sequel

[P_Bomb]

VGA trailer?

[jznrpg]

He said the same thing about Crackdown , Halo Infinite, Redfall etc. Not saying it will be that bad but I would temper my expectations when Phil speaks

[Petebloodyonion]

Try " Confidence" perfume by Phil Spencer (now in Ton size)
for when you need to deliver a Banger!