Fans who have been awaiting Ninja Theory’s previously announced horror game Project Mara will be disappointment to learn the game has reached an untimely end.
The announcement came during an interview with Xbox Wire Editor-In-Chief Joe Skrebels after the announcement of Senua. While discussing the game’s size and scope, Ninja Theory Studio Head, Dom Matthews dropped the detail that their previously announced horror game Project Mara had been cancelled, speaking about the entirety of their 85 person studio is working on Senua, essentially leaving no room to work on their other projects.
“With the fact we have the entire team working on this game, I suspect some people might ask what’s happened to Project Mara–I took the decision to not work on that any further,” Matthews said. He continued, “These decisions are never easy, but I did so to take the opportunity to have all of the talent and expertise in the studio, all 85 creatives, working together to realize the potential of what Senua can be.”
Project Mara was initially announced on January 22nd, 2020 when Ninja Theory was working on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. According to Gamesradar, the game was meant to be a serious examination of mental health while blending elements of horror, “based on real lived experience accounts and in-depth research.” Supposedly, Ninja Theory wanted to “deliver a mainstream solution to help treat mental suffering and encourage mental well being,” and “recreated the horrors of the mind as accurately and realistically as possible.”
Its certainly an unfortunate development, and one can only hope that not too much time or progress was lost on Project Mara in its six years of possible development. However, Ninja Theory has found a strong foothold in the Senua series and the studio hasn’t seemed suffered any major losses despite the cancellation, with Matthews saying, “We had smaller teams working on the last two Hellblade games–Hellblade I in particular was a team of about 25 people.”
Senua was announced during the XBOX Games Showcase 2026 and is slated for a 2027 release.
