Earlier this week, it was reported that Microsoft has entered negotiations to shut down, or grant independence to, acclaimed action-game studio Ninja Concept only a mere eight days after the studio revealed its latest title, Senua, at this yr’s Xbox Video games Showcase. Whereas the potential dismantling of a tenured studio is at all times tragic, Ninja Concept leaves behind a legacy that goes past video video games, in the end shaping Hollywood movies that maybe wouldn’t have been made with out the studio’s ambition.
Based in 2000 below the identify Simply Add Monsters, Ninja Concept constructed itself upon a promise of delivering high-octane motion video games with distinctive aesthetics, equivalent to Kung Fu Chaos and Heavenly Sword. The studio emphasised creativity and narrative as its core values and sought to ship AAA-level experiences regardless of its smaller workforce and budgets.
In 2009 after the studio delivered their first Sony unique with Heavenly Sword, this ambition led founder Tameem Antoniades and his workforce to go to quite a few Hollywood studios to pitch their subsequent venture, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, as a CGI movie. The venture could be a retelling of the traditional Chinese language novel Journey to the West, however set 150 years after mankind has been worn out in an apocalyptic occasion. Nonetheless, Ninja Concept discovered itself unable to persuade a film studio to fund it. Ninja Concept then started pitching it as a online game and, finally, struck a take care of Bandai Namco to publish the title.
With improvement of the sport totally underway, the studio then opted to carry on Hollywood screenwriter Alex Garland, who had simply begun to make a reputation for himself for his work on movies equivalent to 28 Days Later and Sunshine. Desirous to discover a strategy to break into recreation improvement, Garland supplied his companies to assist make Enslaved’s story extra cinematic. He took an energetic position within the recreation’s design, stripping down the exposition within the script and permitting the gameplay and environments to convey data to the participant. Based on Antoniades, Garland was “intimidating” to work with, however the studio founder later praised Garland’s gameplay design selections as the proper selections on reflection.
Upon its launch, it appeared as if most people agreed. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West launched in 2010 to essential acclaim, with GameSpot’s assessment calling it, “An excellent journey that has simply sufficient pleasure and variety within the gameplay to maintain you engaged” and a recreation with “putting visuals.”
For the studio’s subsequent venture, Ninja Concept would collaborate as soon as once more with Garland. After being impressed with the studio’s earlier titles, Capcom reached out to Ninja Concept to reboot its Satan Might Cry franchise. Antoniades would write the sport’s script with Garland, whereas the latter would additionally function script and story supervisor. The reboot, DmC: Satan Might Cry, marked a drastic departure from the earlier, gothic-inspired video games within the franchise. As a substitute, DmC supplied a darkish and gritty tackle the world that was impressed by a grittiness just like Christopher Nolan’s The Darkish Knight and British punk-rock sensibilities. The sport reworked the collection’ lore, and served as a refresh of the origin of protagonist Dante as he traversed the world between Heaven and Hell.
DmC launched in 2013, and whereas praised for its gameplay mechanics, was largely reviled by followers of the collection and seen as a business failure by Capcom. Its largest criticisms have been the disregard for collection’ lore and the characterization of Dante. Nonetheless, Satan Might Cry collection producer Matt Walker praised the sport, saying it had “an incredible world all its personal that would solely have been produced by the wonderful artists and imaginations at Ninja Concept.”
Alex Garland would finish his relationship with Ninja Concept with DmC: Satan Might Cry, opting as an alternative to return to the world of filmmaking. The next yr, Garland made his directorial debut with the indie darling Ex Machina; he would then go on to make movies equivalent to Annihilation and Civil Conflict, each of which have been critically praised.
Apparently, although maybe unsurprisingly, Garland’s fashion of filmmaking options the identical storytelling parts that have been current in his video games, and it options cinematic motion sequences that really feel ripped straight from a online game.
In a full circle second, it was introduced in 2024 that Alex Garland would write and direct an adaptation of From Software program’s Elden Ring for A24. The story goes that, after being impressed whereas enjoying by means of the sport, Garland determined to write down a 160-page spec script and fly all the best way to Japan to instantly pitch it to recreation director Hidetaka Miyazaki, in the end incomes the sport studio’s approval.
Alex Garland took what he discovered working with Ninja Concept and utilized it to a complete completely different medium of leisure. With out the ambition and collaborative nature cultivated at Ninja Concept–ideas that challenged what it means to be a AAA motion recreation or a narrative-focused video game–this, presumably, would not have taken place. Ninja Concept helped give filmmaking one in every of its most bold administrators, amongst many different achievements. To see them shut their doorways wouldn’t solely be an ideal loss to Microsoft and Xbox, however to gaming as a complete.
