Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was not started by Ninja Theory, now part of Xbox Game Studios, as we first thought, but at a different time.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was released in 2017, and it would be logical to conclude that the studio began development on the sequel then, or possibly in 2018. But that’s not the case, and even the trailer shown at The Game Awards 2019 (at the same time Microsoft unveiled the Xbox Series X) was a bit of a trick, despite Ninja Theory confirming that the graphics running in the engine (Unreal Engine 5) will lead to a truly next-gen experience.

But even then, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II wasn’t really fully in development! So the studio was a bit tricky with the announcement! Ninja Theory’s Dom Matthews talked about this in an interview with Kinda Funny Games. He explained that they didn’t start full development until 2020, so the announcement trailer was just a “sketch”. They didn’t put the pedal to the metal until Bleeding Edge was finished. So they didn’t have any development problems, they didn’t have anything to show, and that’s why it took more than two years between the release of the first part and the announcement of the second part.

And that’s why Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II didn’t make the news until two years after The Game Awards 2019, because it wasn’t until The Game Awards 2021 that they finally got to show something of the game that was in development by then. This short time span shows how quickly they were able to get something out to the public. The four year development cycle makes it understandable that the story will take 7-8 hours to play through (which is how long the first Hellblade took), although this time there will be a better combat system and better graphics.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II will be released on May 21 for the Xbox line and PC, but will also be available on Game Pass.

Source: GameRant