Less than a year after launch.
It’s been just under a year since the developer of Hellblade Ninja Theory launched its team-based multiplayer effort Bleeding Edge, but the studio is already calling time for development, announcing that there will be no more content updates starting today.
Launched last March for Xbox One and PC, Bleeding Edge was released as a strident blend of third-person melee action and class-based 4v4 multiplayer, and successfully laid a solid, albeit bare, foundation at launch. As Wesley Yin-Poole of Eurogamer said in his review, “The combat is good enough to get away with it for now, but without some significant updates I will probably lose interest sooner or later.”
These updates came, but only sporadically, with the last major addition of Bleeding Edge arriving in the form of the new character Azrael last July. A quick look at SteamCharts shows competitors dropping since then, with player counts nearly creaky above 30 in the past few months. If this trend is reflected elsewhere, it is understandable that the Ninja Theory chooses to stop content updates.
Bleeding Edge launch trailer.
Announcing the news on twitter, the developer linked his decision to the fact that he was “now focusing on our new projects (Senua’s Saga, Project Mara and The Insight Project)”, but noted that Bleeding Edge can still be played on Xbox and PC.
“Thanks to the fans,” he concluded, “keep coming together and causing chaos!”