In a flurry of information regarding possible studio shutdowns, Microsoft has decided to close the doors at the BAFTA award-winning Ninja Theory
According to The Verge, a source (likely under anonymity) has confirmed that XBOX is closing Ninja Theory, stating, “Staffers were told on a call on Monday about the closure, but they are hoping the studio will find a buyer.” This news comes after a Bloomberg report that several studios in Microsoft Corp.’s XBOX gaming division were at risk of being shuttered as part of what the company calls a “broader reorganization.”
The Verge reached out to XBOX for comment but has yet to receive a response. The news comes as a genuine shock after the XBOX Games Showcase, which prominently featured Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II—with studio head Dom Matthews confirming in an interview that they had cancelled their previously announced Project Mara to focus the entire team on Hellblade II.
However, the closing of Ninja Theory does follow what XBOX CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty referred to as a “reset” in an XBOX Wire post that was sent to the entire team globally. In it, they said, “We expanded our studio system when we needed a pipeline of content to meet multiple strategies…In the process, we have found ourselves overextended as we executed on changing strategies in a landscape of more readily available content.”
Ninja Theory is just one of the many studios facing the chopping block. XBOX is also considering closing Compulsion Games, makers of the Canadian Game of the Year-winning South of Midnight and We Happy Few, and Tim Schafer’s Double Fine—however, both studios are in active negotiations for their futures. This is part of a sweeping round of layoffs reported by Bloomberg on June 10th, 2026, as Sharma supposedly “lamented the bleak state of the business.”
Ninja Theory was best known for their PlayStation 3 exclusive Heavenly Sword released in 2007. They would continue with games that were genuinely inventive—like the excellent Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and the intuitive but divisive DmC: Devil May Cry.
