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Ninja Theory, the developer behind Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and DMC, gave a presentation at Gamescom this year entitled, "The Independent AAA Proposition." The speech detailed the history of the studio as well as the ups and downs they've had with major publishers. While they were grateful for the opportunities publishers allowed them, the past loss of creative rights and freedom had Ninja Theory unhappy with their position in the marketplace. Then one failed project led them to change it all, coin the phrase "Independent AAA" and start work on Hellblade, That project was Razer. According to Ninja Theory, Razer, "was going to be a mix of melee and gunplay,' where players would be, "fighting an ever adapting enemy that required you to collaborate in squads and constantly adapt and change your attack pattern." They called it "the world“s biggest boss fight." The game would revolve around a "Beast" that had invaded and taken over the Earth. From a technical standpoint, "the creature was a beast that lived in the cloud driven by a complex adaptive AI server. Tens of thousands of players would take part in taking down this monster over the course of months and years. The game relied on procedural techniques to create millions of missions all over the planet." So how could such an awesome concept not go into full development? Destiny. When Destiny was announced by Bungie, no publisher wanted to challenge it outright. It stopped Razer cold in its tracks. Looking on the bright side, perhaps it truly was destiny for Ninja Theory to get halted in the publisher pipeline. To be forced to create a new niche of self-published AAA games. Hellblade may be the answer to that. Stay locked on Game Podunk to find out. Source: Ninja Theory