@beardalaxy Well said.
Hellblade was a movie "game", like many AAA slop games these days, like Mixtape and 007 - First Light, with entire sections that play themselves and are there purely for spectacle.
And even the spectacle fails to land as the players aren't invested with the terrible writing.
ninja theory's history is basically being a studio that gets bailed out all the time with all of their games being commercial failures. they clawed back a little bit with their "independent AAA" idea for the first hellblade but the game only has the veneer of a triple A game. it doesn't play like one. it isn't fun. it's barely a game. it just looks pretty.
ninja theory's eyes are bigger than its stomach. their studio facing a shutdown is not surprising in the slightest. they should have pivoted to making budget titles that focused on really fun, highly replayable gameplay a long time ago but they chose to chase presentation instead. good lesson for other studios, hopefully some will learn.