Ninja Theory
Ninja Theory Limited is a first-party British video game developer for Xbox Game Studios based in Cambridge, England. Notable games it has developed include Kung Fu Chaos, Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, DmC: Devil May Cry, and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.
Not to be confused with Team Ninja.Formerly
Just Add Monsters Limited (2000–2004)
March 2000
- Tameem Antoniades
- Nina Kristensen
- Mike Ball
- Dom Matthews
- (studio head)
- Jez San
- (non-executive director)
- Nina Kristensen
- (chief development director)
120[1] (2020)
- Argonaut Games
- (2000–2004)
- Xbox Game Studios
- (2018–present)
Senua Studio
Founded by Tameem Antoniades, Nina Kristensen and Mike Ball in March 2000, the company operated under the name Just Add Monsters. It was acquired by Argonaut Games soon after its founding and released Kung Fu Chaos for the original Xbox console. The company purchased itself from administrators after Argonaut Games was liquidated but suffered from financial troubles. Sony Computer Entertainment saved the team from bankruptcy by funding the development of Heavenly Sword, which was an expensive project. The game's poor sales resulted in Ninja Theory losing all their in-house technologies because of contractual agreements with Sony. The team then moved on to develop Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, an underperforming project in collaboration with writer Alex Garland, and DmC: Devil May Cry, whose design was highly controversial, resulting in the team receiving death threats.
The team began diversifying its portfolio of games and taking on contract work for publishers after finishing the development of DmC. It also entrusted a small team to develop their first self-published title, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. The team developed a business model they called "Independent AAA", where the game would have a small budget while retaining high graphical fidelity. Exploring the theme of psychosis, the game was a commercial and critical success. In June 2018, it was officially announced that Ninja Theory had entered into an agreement to be acquired by Microsoft and became part of Microsoft Studios (now known as Xbox Game Studios). Several new projects, including virtual reality games, are under development.
Philosophy[edit]
Ninja Theory's initial goal was to create a blockbuster title for major publishers, so they could gain a place in the triple-A gaming scene.[38] However, the team slowly realised that the publisher model was restraining developers' creative vision, making the games more conservative and risk-averse.[39] As a result, the team put forward the notion of the "independent AAA proposition" where the title would have a smaller budget and lower price point while retaining AAA production values. The developer would communicate directly with the player base without any publisher's help to get players to play early versions of the game and provide feedback.[40] With the success of Hellblade, the company urged other small independent companies wanting to increase the production value of their games to adopt this new business model. Ninja Theory reiterated the company did not "hate" publishers,[41] and that they would still be doing "work-for-hire, publisher work and original work" in the future.[29]
Antoniades described creativity and narrative as "core" to the studio.[40] The team emphasised story over gameplay, believing that if the game's story was well-written and intriguing, the quality of the gameplay would also improve since it would attract players to continue playing.[42] Antoniades added the team would only implement mechanics into a game that helped enhance the experience. Hellblade's permadeath system and its lack of heads up display were cited as examples.[43]