Hellblade 2 devs say there's an audience for shorter "focused" games

Ninja Theory talks about how Hellblade fans enjoy shorter games ahead of the launch of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, which will be a similar length to the first game.

Heidi Nicholas

Published 04 Apr 2024

We've still got a bit of a wait for the Senua's Saga: Hellblade II achievements, as, while it's next on our list of upcoming Xbox exclusives, we've still got to wait for May. When Hellblade 2 does arrive, however, it will be a similar length to the first game, with Ninja Theory saying Hellblade fans also enjoy shorter games with "meaningful" journeys.

Hellblade 2 devs say "there's a lot of pressure on people's time these days"

“I think what we always set out to do is to tell a story and for the game length to be appropriate for the story that we want to tell,” Ninja Theory studio head Dom Matthews said to IGN, later adding, “I think that since digital distribution has become a thing, it has opened the industry up to games of all shapes and sizes, which I think is really great. So I'm really pleased to see that there's a lot of people that actually enjoy a shorter experience, something that they can sit down on a whatever Friday night, stick their headphones on, turn the lights off and kind of sink into an experience and players who don't necessarily want something that is 50 hours long, a 100 hours long, so it's as long as it needs to be. And I'm one of those people, I like shorter games."

According to Matthews, "there's a lot of pressure on people's time these days and I think our fans, from what we hear from them, they enjoy a shorter game where our intention is that every step of that journey is meaningful… There's an audience of people that want games that are focused.”

Just looking at the estimate when it comes to achievements, the Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice achievements and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice walkthrough have an estimated completion time of around six to eight hours. From our round-up of everything we know about Hellblade 2, we know that the sequel will be similar in length.

“I think success for us is, we would love for as many players to play our games as possible, but I think particularly with Hellblade we love and I love that magic that you can achieve by creating something that makes people think and feel," Matthews concludes. "So if I think about the things that I want to achieve in Hellblade 2, once it's released, the thing that will put the biggest smile on my face is to see fans of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and people who like those kind of game saying you've continued Senua's journey in a way that is worthy of that character.”

In other Hellblade 2 news in the run-up to May, we've just learned that Hellblade 2 runs at 30fps on Xbox Series X|S and that it won't feature a performance mode.

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Written by Heidi Nicholas

Heidi tends to lean towards indie games, RPGs, and open-world games on Xbox, and when not playing Disney Dreamlight Valley, happily installs every new wholesome game that appears on Xbox Game Pass, before diving back into favorites like The Witcher 3. She's looking forward to Age of Mythology Retold, Everwild, Fable, and Avowed on the Xbox horizon. Heidi graduated with an MA in English Literature before joining the TrueAchievements team.