Ninja Theory to share a new thing about Senua's Saga: Hellblade II every day until launch
- Thread starter Angie
- Start date
Fwiw I haven't seen any ads anywhere yet. Anecdotal but I can see why others are saying there's no marketing.
You call it "crying" but alot of us are going to be playing this on Game Pass and when the sales aren't where MS needs them to be we all know where the burden will fall.
I follow the NT X account yet this thread is my only reminder of "hey they shared something new about the game". I guess I'm not on social media enough to see all the ads but that could be true for many more people.
I think selling the game, or making people aware of its existence is more important than spoilers at this point.
Also its been years, this is the marketers job, they should have this figured out.
OP
OP
I think they doing great with the marketing.
This is not your typical AAA bombastic game.
It's not a easy to market because of the themes it tackles
This is not your typical AAA bombastic game.
It's not a easy to market because of the themes it tackles
the game had two great trailers showings really in the last two shows. Tga and direct. We got pretty positive previews also last month. Now we are getting ads on YouTube twitch insta Reddit and some more planned closer to launch. Wich is logical. The ads really hit when the game is out or very close for people to pick up the game. Also lets be real the biggest marketing is reviews and big streamers playing on twitch day one
We are at a point where great reviews and awards didn't matter for a studio which just got shut down. I really hope Ninja Theory survives this.
I just wanna see a video of someone entering a battle and killing a few enemies with no cutting in the video . I still don't understand why there no video showing this yet . Don't think it's ever been something like this before . Game come out in less than 10 days
OP out here doing more marketing than Xbox.
Impossible to see how this "beats" expectations. By all the normal Xbox metrics, Hi-Fi Rush did well according to Xbox people, so we're probably past the point where anything can change the fate of Hellblade 2/Ninja Theory beyond this game going viral like Helldivers 2/Palworld.
Something like 2-3 million players on Gamepass with 85+ Metacritic would probably have to be a success.
But does it mean anything without any actual revenue and with players just playing 5-10 hours on average each?
I loved the first game and will be there day 1 for the sequel but it's this. Even on this forum, I read like ten posts from people who gave up on the first game a few hours in to every post about finishing it.
It's in the same boat Plague Tale basically. The reality is that Xbox threw a $100 million budget at a game that was meant to make the hard core audience happy and create positive word of mouth for the platform but the game never had any chance of breaking a profit.
Itw sort of like the Bugatti Veyron of video games.
Actually, never mind, I feel like this discussion is derailing the point of this thread.
Yes. Hellblade is such a cool name as well (NT are pretty good with that aspect eg Heavenly Sword and Bleeding Edge). I get there's a reason behind Senua's Saga but it's a bit silly given a 3rd game would be called Hellblade 3, surely.
I haven't seen any marketing for it around here so the more the merrier. I know it's really only similar due to the setting but I think people craving another God of War might lap this up.
I keep forgetting this unfortunately another no-physical release game. I think that only hurts a game like this. But I guess since it's on game pass why bother? Idk
If you could elaborate, how so?
Microsoft seems to agree with you.
OP
OP
It's a 50 euros digital only game.
The game is not a super bombastic AAA game.
Also a sequel for a gaem that at one point was exclusive on PS4.
The game has limited audience and reach. I don't expect for the game to have a major marketing push like happened to Starfield.
From what I seen seems the marketing is adequat for this game.
Also if reviews well it will push for good word to mouth
But Microsoft hasn't installed a 50 ft Hellblade 2 billboard outside my front window. So how can I be sure they are marketing it at all? 🤔
In all seriousness, it's been on twitch, YouTube, Reddit, etc. Even being shown in some cinemas. Idk what people want from this.
This game doesnt have a 100M budget. MS would be way more aggresive with the marketing and it wouldnt be 50 bucks if it did.
Would be complete nonsense from MS to put that much money into it.
They had 120 employees as of 2020 and spent five years working on this game. Even if you assume the average salary is £50,000, that comes out to £30M or about $38M in USD. That's just labor alone.
I know that European software salaries are a lot lower but it's possible that £50K is too low as the typical dev at Electronic Arts makes 2-3 times that according to what I see on Glassdoor and Levels (which aren't perfect, I know). With the most conservative numbers, it probably needs about 2 million units sold to break even or whatever that translates to in the GP engagement revenue formula. It looks like the first game took about a year to reach a million in sales.
If this game is just a very beautiful loss leader, then I love it even more for that.
Hadn't played HB1 in a long time but watched this three hour movie cut and I'm glad I did. Worth a watch if you are going into HB2 next week:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EojO1YREkpA
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EojO1YREkpA
I can't wait for this, first real "next Gen" moment. Finally. I know it'll be a visual and audio tour de force and quite the experience
I think there is at least some difference in such characteristics as "adequate" and "great". Great would be the last word that I would describe HB2 marketing tbh. Also, 50 bucks is not some change money to solely hope on wom and not invest into visible promotion from biggest company in gaming with it's new release. I dunno, maybe I miss the bigger picture.
Mmmhmmm... Ninja Theory indeed!
Hopefully they support VR at launch. (Edit- 🤬)
Edit- WHAAAAT? How did I miss this news! Fuuu no VR plans....
Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 Has No Plans For VR Support
Ninja Theory confirmed there are currently no plans for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 to support VR.
www.uploadvr.com
Hope the community does one hell of a job with Praydog's UEVR tools. 😔
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This isn't the first game of its kind though. How did other games get marketed?
It's almost a certainty that it's eventually going to land on PS5.
Ok but it hasn't been announced yet so what's the question for
Why are people so worried? It's Hellblade and Ninja Theory fully backed by Xbox. It'll do gangbusters with or without marketing.
This is correct! If it reviews well and the streamers are playing/enjoying it, then people will buy it.
Also, port begging is ok on resetera these days?
I don't even know what constitutes port begging anymore when we have CEOs stating they want their games on multiple platforms.
I've seen bans handed out for people asking for a PS game on PC.
You'd have to ban half the ps user base here because you consistently see people with claims that everything is coming to PlayStation.
I suppose that's true, but unless the game is announced for another platform then it would still be port begging.
Interesting.
Maybe the mods just aren't enforcing it that strictly given what's been happening.
They arent only working on Hellblade. The first one already looked impressive and had p low budget.
I have seen ads on Twitch for this the past few days, but to be honest the ads are not really doing any favors and show no combat and just cinematic walking and talking. They are not doing this game any favors.
Edit: And I will say that if it does not end up going somewhere else also to help drive sales then Ninja Theory is in trouble.
That is not port begging because I do not care where and I would honestly not by it anyway, but I would definitely love the studio to stay around to see what they bring next
Edit: And I will say that if it does not end up going somewhere else also to help drive sales then Ninja Theory is in trouble.
That is not port begging because I do not care where and I would honestly not by it anyway, but I would definitely love the studio to stay around to see what they bring next
You can have a look at companies house to get a rough idea of their cost.
View: https://imgur.com/a/jUAKDnV
Not exactly what the turnover represents here
Forgive me, I'm not an accountant, but I'm guessing OPEX at a game dev is almost all internal labor costs. There are of course certain types of labor that are often contracted out (photogrammetry, mocap, etc) but contractor costs are filed under COGS.
If I have the order right in the screenshot album, then for OPEX alone it's:
2019: £22.6 million
2020: £14.7 million
2021: £13.2 million
2022: £18.0 million
Which is about £68.5 million or $85.82 million. As Yuntu pointed out, they did work on other stuff too like some small VR projects and Bleeding Edge (2020 release) but it seems the vast majority of the studio was probably working on HB2 since 2019.
So yeah, wow. The first game had a budget of like $10 million (USD) and had a team of 20. It looks like both the budget and headcount were multiplied quite a bit for HB2. Who cares, I say enjoy it even if there's no money to be made.
Have they revealed if they've got VNV Nation for the credits again?
I'm asking that jokingly. It was still a legit pleasant surprise when I was playing the first game.
I mean, Heilung is all well and good, but Ninja Theory does some banging needle drops when they want to.
I'm asking that jokingly. It was still a legit pleasant surprise when I was playing the first game.
I mean, Heilung is all well and good, but Ninja Theory does some banging needle drops when they want to.
Always confused by these comments. Game have been on every show they had, I see ads on twitch etc and the "big" campaign will start soon also.
I do wonder how much of this is inhoused given their investment into a mocap studio.
Yeah, that's my current stance. Enjoy it, hope it does well and hope there ain't no dumb exec decisions but my worrying ain't going to help.
its just a easy train to hop on these last days. Same thing happpened on Twitter some days ago