It’s just been revealed that Xbox will be closing down Ninja Theory after the most recent round of layoffs that took place yesterday and has resulted in a total of 268 employees being let go from the company across Halo Studios and other first-party studios. Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty has provided a brief rundown on the current predicament of Ninja Theory in the new blog post titled ‘Continuing Our Reset’:
“Unfortunately, two separate agreements for Ninja Theory fell through. We will now begin consultation with employees on a proposed closure while continuing to explore other paths forward.”
Geoff Keighley has also confirmed the news via a recent post, stating: “A buyer for Ninja Theory has fallen through and Xbox will now close Ninja Theory.”
The possibility of Ninja Theory getting closed had surfaced ever since the first round of layoffs in Xbox that took place in July this year, and it was also revealed that Xbox decided to unveil the studio’s new game Senua earlier this year only to attract potential buyers for the studio. Back then it was certain that Ninja Theory will remain on full developmental capacity and will continue with Senua, but will no longer be under the Xbox or Microsoft umbrella.
However, it turns out Microsoft has trademarked the Senua IP last week which suggests the publisher wants to retain the rights to the series, and perhaps without Ninja Theory working as a developer. It’s also possible that Microsoft is protecting itself from IP infringement by trademarking the term “Senua”, however, it may also be that Xbox has further plans for the franchise. You can view the official trademark filling for Senua here, which was filed on September 15.
Ninja Theory has had multiple acclaimed titles over the years, chief among them is Hellblade 2 which earned several nominations at the 2025 BAFTA Games Awards event.
