The video game by developers Ninja Theory, "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice," has reportedly surpassed expectations in terms of it sales — selling well over 500,000 units since its release last August. Given that the game is considered to be an independent game, Ninja Theory has proven that such titles can receive the same success that is usually expected from triple-A games, without enormous budgets.
In a report by Gamespot, the development team over at Ninja Theory released a video to commemorate the milestone of surpassing 500,000 in sales. Ninja Theory, initially, did not expect that the game would be receiving such attention, especially due to the sensitive matters that the game tackled as well as some discouraging bugs that was present across all the platforms wherein the game was launched.
Despite the numerous hiccups and bugs that were present shortly after the game's release, the developers were quick to respond with patches and updates, which effectively and drastically improved the overall gameplay experience for players. According to Forbes, the developers first projected that they would get over the hump of breaking even and move on to make profits after six months of the game's release.
In addition, being able to sell numerous titles in a very short time span has taken the indie developers by surprise. Ninja Theory did not have the aid of big name publishers such as Electronic Arts or Bethesda Softworks. The sales of the game heavily relied on word of mouth marketing, since the studio did not have any allocated funds for advertising. In fact, according to Cinema Blend, "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" only sold digital copies due to lack of funds.
It is currently estimated that Ninja Theory was able to amass $13 million dollars as of now, According to PC Gamer, "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" has triumphed in tackling the sensitive topic of mental health issues. Other games in the past have tried to incorporate this subject, but as it turns out, none of them have the same impact.
"Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" is now available digitally for the PlayStation 4 and the PC.
