Senua is an ordinary character, except for the blue tattoo.
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Indie no more: Microsoft acquires Hellblade creator Ninja Theory

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Microsoft announced today that it has acquired Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice creator Ninja Theory. In some ways, that’s a great outcome for Ninja Theory, but it’s another sign that it’s not easy to be a Triple-A indie game studio.

The U.K.-based Ninja Theory is one of five new teams that will have the resources and independence to make games for Microsoft platforms, said Phil Spencer, head of Xbox at Microsoft, at the company’s event ahead of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.