Hellblade 3 is in development now and will be ‘more of a game’ claims rumour

A surprising rumour claims Ninja Theory has the go-ahead to make Hellblade 3, but the previously announced Project: Mara has been cancelled.

We were never the biggest fans of Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and we thought even less of its 2024 sequel, but they are impressive games in many ways. Both are masterpieces when it comes to the graphics, and all the more so given how small the team of developers is.

So it was worrying to hear Microsoft admit it was unsure if the sequel would be much of a hit, which all external evidence suggests it wasn’t.

It was rumoured in 2024 that Ninja Theory had already been given the greenlight for a new game, but that was before the sweeping Xbox layoffs in 2025. As such, it’s a little surprising to hear that Ninja Theory is not only still kicking, but its next project is apparently Hellblade 3.

The news comes from Windows Central’s Jez Corden, who brought up Ninja Theory’s status during an appearance on the Xbox Two podcast this month (starting from the 36:16 mark).

What’s especially interesting (given the nature of the last two games) is that Ninja Theory allegedly wants Hellblade 3 to be more ‘interactive’ and ‘more of a game to broaden its appeal.’

Corden does add that it may not necessarily be called Hellblade 3, but it sounds like it’ll at least be set in the Hellblade universe.

For what it’s worth, we thought the first game’s combat was very good, but the enemy encounters quickly grew repetitive. The combat was detrimentally watered down in the sequel and neither game had particularly good puzzles, so a sequel that improves both elements would be very welcome.

But what about Project: Mara? As a reminder, this was something Ninja Theory teased back in 2020 as an ‘in-development experimental title’ that would feature ‘a real-world and grounded representation of mental terror, based on real lived experience accounts and in-depth research with the aim of recreating the horrors of the mind as accurately and realistically as possible.’

The teaser video didn’t really show much outside of demonstrating that it would be a horror game, but Corden claims that Project: Mara is, for the time being, nothing more than a concept.

‘You guys shouldn’t expect Project: Mara to be a thing. Project: Mara was just a concept, it’s not a game, and it’s not a game they’re currently working on,’ says Corden, only adding that it might be something Ninja Theory goes back to at a later date.

Hellblade 3 alone should hopefully keep Ninja Theory’s lights on for the time being, since it likely won’t be out for several more years (it was seven years between Hellblade 1 and 2!).

While Microsoft never shared sales figures, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella noted that during Hellblade 2’s launch month of May 2024, it only came 37th in the US sales charts (via IGN).

It didn’t fare much better in Europe either, with The Game Business’ Chris Dring reporting that Hellblade 2 didn’t even break into the top 100 of game sales during its launch period.

None of this bodes particularly well for Hellblade 3’s chances and even if it manages to be a major hit, there’s no guarantee Ninja Theory will be allowed to make more games afterwards. Not when Microsoft has shown willingness to cancel projects like Blackbird, a game so ‘spectacular’ that Xbox boss Phil Spencer apparently couldn’t stop playing it.

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