In the final developers diary for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, developers Ninja Theory went into detail on what made Hellblade such a successful game, and how their “independent AAA approach” experiment succeeded and might be turning into a model for future companies to use.
Also in the video (above), Ninja Theory goes into detail on some key numbers for the game, including the fact that the game has already sold 500K units in just 3 months. According to Ninja Theory, this number puts the project beyond breakeven, meaning that the studio is now officially making profit on all games sold. This is obviously a great thing for the studio, and made even greater when you consider that they didn’t expect to be at this point until at least 6 months from release.
As far as the success of the game goes, Tameem Antoniades – the Co-founder and “Chief Creative Ninja” for Ninja Theory – spoke to the success of independent studios and how they’re breaking into the AAA publishing model. “The future isn’t written and we don’t believe that the writing is on the wall. AAA will always exist but we need strong alternatives as well. “
The entire developer diary (which runs for about 11 minutes) is definitely worth a watch, but you can check out some key numbers for the games launch below, courtesy of Ninja Theory:
- Over 75k pre-orders across PC and PS4 before launch.
- 250K units sold in the first week at $29.99.
- Over $13m in revenue generated in 3 months.
- 500k units sold in 3 months, which puts the project beyond breakeven and into profit. Our prediction was to be at this point in 6 months from release.
- Development took 3 years and with an average team size of 20.
- Game sold as digital-only.
- About half the sales were on PC.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is available now.
