Ninja Theory On Heavenly Sword 2

[JPB]

Ninja Theory On Heavenly Sword 2: "Extremely Unlikely"

For a long time, everyone just assumed Ninja Theory would be making a sequel to Heavenly Sword. The original was a great game with quite possibly the best acting we've ever seen, and we had high hopes for that second effort.

Unfortunately, we won't be getting it any time soon, if ever. Ninja Theory has revealed their new project is a multiplatform IP, which certainly means it's not Heavenly Sword 2. According to Ripten, IT Manager "Peonic" explained the situation:

"We?re not abandoning HS just on a whim because we want to go off and do something different - there?s a great huge raft of reasons behind us taking the direction we are - and it?s also the nature of the business that I?m not allowed to share any of those reasons with you. As for the ?you?re just not doing HS2 NOW? comments - well one thing you learn in this industry is that you never say ?Never?. So I?m not going to say we?ll ?never? go back and make HS2 - but it?s something I personally see as extremely unlikely."

The first game just recently crossed the platinum sales mark, and while some critics wanted deeper gameplay, it was still considered one of the year's best for the PS3. Many will be disappointed with this decision to abandon the would-be series, but these days, third-party exclusives just aren't in the cards. Here's what Ninja Theory founder Nina Kristensen had to say-

"Well, with Kung-Fu Chaos, we worked exclusively with Microsoft; with Heavenly Sword, we worked exclusively with Sony. And it?s really a time for us to go cross-platform, so we ultimately turned it down. As a studio, we feel it?s the right thing to do. It makes things more commercially viable - and as an indie we have to be very commercially aware. It was great to work with Sony and get really intimate with the PS3 hardware; going forwards, that positions us to execute things properly on both PS3 and 360."

Now, because Sony owns the publishing rights to HS, they might search for another developer to make the sequel. We really don't want to see that happen, so we'll just cling to the hope that Ninja Theory might eventually decide to step up and deliver Heavenly Sword 2. We get the feeling that this is one of those things that could result in an online petition... But for now, HS2 just ain't happening. Sorry, guys.


:frown:

 

[vi edit]

So this basically is a developers round about way of saying that 3rd party exclusives suck for everyone but the console company(IP rights) and fanboys.

 

[destrekor]

Dammit. There were talks a little while ago about how the story would pick up from the first one, with a new playable character, same sword, and so many years after the first game.

It would be great to see a sequel, as there are so many ways that they could improve the game and really make it a top seller. The first one was awesome for what it is, and had a great story that made you want to continue. It was deep, but light and quirky that made it appealing to a lot of people. But sadly, its going to be one of those games obscured in the history of the PS3, due to the lower volume of PS3s sold up to and around the time Heavenly Sword was released. Maybe it'll sell excellently once it hits Greatest Hits status when there are a lot more PS3s in the hands of gamers, which could be the best chance at convincing Ninja Theory a sequel is something they should work on.

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[JPB]

I agree. Heavenly Sword was the first game I played on my PS3. And I didn't play any others until I finished it.

Dammit Ninja Theory, Dammit all to hell 🙁

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: vi edit
So this basically is a developers round about way of saying that 3rd party exclusives suck for everyone but the console company(IP rights) and fanboys.

well, having two consoles that basically do the same exact thing in the marketplace at the same time is ridiculous as well. Competition is great, but there needs to be bigger differences between systems. With Nintendo's Wii out, there really should only be one other console, ideally. The console market seemed best when there were two competitors, and Sega found out the hard way that three's company doesn't work so well, although Microsoft has more money, the Xbox was pretty bad, but they tried again and have had a good start with the 360. Sony is getting back in their game, and Nintendo, if the Wii would have failed, probably would have dropped out of the hardware market, like Sega before. But they tried something radical and made huge success and are raking in the money because of it.

So you have one type of console, but then you have two types of the same style of console. As the PS3 gets cheaper, and more of the AAA titles are released, it seems like sales continue to pick up. Good chance the trend will continue that way too. So, wonder if we'll have yet another round of 3 consoles in the same generation... I think the best chances would be for Sony and Microsoft to work together (funny, right? :laugh🙂 on a single-branded system (say, a new company with split, even ownership between the two). Again, this is likely to never happen. But three console market really hurts the gamer, and the console business in general. At least, in my view it does. May not seem that way... and maybe I just like the idea of only a two-company market. Seems the market can support 3 businesses, but might function at its strongest with only two, with the market eventually tossing someone aside. But this seems to give others the idea that they should hop in, thus Microsoft entering the race when Sega dropped. At least, that's how I make sense of it.

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[blurredvision]

Heavenly Sword is tied at number one on my short list of favorite PS3 games (Drake is the other). I was really looking forward to what I thought was an inevitable sequel, this news sucks 🙁.

 

[oznerol]

My conspiracy theory is Heavenly Sword was only created because Sony knew they needed a God of War clone out ASAP since GoW 3 was far from being released (ala GT5 Prologue), so they signed on Ninja Theory to do their bidding. All signs point to this - short game, very similar mechanics, a bit on the shallow end.

Who knows, I'm probably wrong, but glad to see another developer going cross-platform.

Originally posted by: destrekor
blah blah blah Sony ruelz blah blah blah

I'm really happy you put the silly + at the end of your posts, as it makes it easy for me to ignore all that precedes it.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: ducci
My conspiracy theory is Heavenly Sword was only created because Sony knew they needed a God of War clone out ASAP since GoW 3 was far from being released (ala GT5 Prologue), so they signed on Ninja Theory to do their bidding. All signs point to this - short game, very similar mechanics, a bit on the shallow end.

Who knows, I'm probably wrong, but glad to see another developer going cross-platform.

Originally posted by: destrekor
blah blah blah Sony ruelz blah blah blah

I'm really happy you put the silly + at the end of your posts, as it makes it easy for me to ignore all that precedes it.

wow okay way to try and turn it into a fanboy argument. I was merely taking a look at it from an market analysis viewpoint, and a good amount of what I stated is shared opinions of other notable analysts. You just want to be an ass.

It's sad to see you want to ignore my posts, because if you read my posts in the console forum, you'd know its quite apparent I'm the opposite of a fanboy. I have owned multiple systems in the past, and own 2 of the systems of this generation, and have ample experience with the third. I stepped aside from a gamer perspective and into a business perspective for the last post. If you cared to follow market happenings, you could see how I drew the conclusions I did, as I am not alone. Well, the two vs three consoles argument I may be, however, that's just filler.

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[randay]

In my opinion Heavenly Sword has some rediculous production values, it might as well have been done by dreamworks or something. I'm sure someone will expand on this type of genre in the future, and hopefully it will be heavenly sword 2, so they can have the experiences from the first and refine the lacking aspects.

 

[imported_Imp]

I'm still waiting for this to go below $40 before I buy it. Six hours just doesn't cut it... Please tell me DMC4 was longer than 6 hours cause I bought that and it felt worth it😉.

 

[oznerol]

Market analysis? Really? What exactly did you analyze? You just made a bunch of general (and incorrect) statements.

The market is not big enough for 3 consoles? False
There needs to be a bigger difference between systems? Wrong
Sega failed because they were the "3rd console"? Nope
Three consoles hurt the gamer? Absolutely not

I'm not claiming you're a "fanboy". I am claiming that you are wrong. Often. And on multiple levels.

P.S. What is bad for the gamer are console-exclusive 3rd-party games. There are various reasons for this, but primarily it is because game development is incredibly expensive. Simply put, maximizing availability for these games maximizes profits, which in turn allows these developers to continue making these big-budget games we all love.