The failure of '' Razor '' , and questions from Garland about why the gaming development scene did not have many independent projects similar to the independent film industry prompted the team to begin to evaluate the idea of " independent AAA " , where the team would own the intellectual property and publish the game themselves without mainstream game publishers . The game would still have high production values but would be sold at a lower price . The team firmly believed that there was " a middle ground between the low budget pure indie development and AAA projects " . The team opted not to use Kickstarter having decided to fund it themselves . This led to the creation of '' Hellblade : Senua 's Sacrifice '' , which had a team of only 15 people working on it . Since the game had a small budget , the studio did not promote the game heavily with advertisements instead creating numerous developer diaries for players who were interested in it . The team collaborated with several technology companies like 3Lacteal , Cubic Motion and Xsens to help with motion capture , which allowed the actors to preview their performance while acting . In September 2016 , Ninja Theory announced their Senua Studio division , which would work on real-time virtual character technology . As the game explored mental illness and psychosis , the company consulted professional neuroscientists and obtained financial backing from the Wellcome Trust . After a three-year development cycle '' Hellblade '' was a critical success when it launched in August 2017 , with praise for its depiction of mental illnesses . The game was also a commercial success , becoming profitable within three months of its release , generating more than $ 13 million with sales of more than 500,000 units . The game was nominated for five awards at the 14th British Academy Games Awards . Antoniades considered the critical acclaim validation that the independent AAA business model worked
14th British Academy Games Awards
14th British Academy Games Awards
Ninja Theory