Namco Bandai enlists Ninja Theory for mystery project

Heavenly Sword dev teams with Japanese publisher on unnamed Xbox 360, PS3 original IP, due in 2010.

One of Sony's headline releases for the PlayStation 3 in 2007 was Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword, a God of War-esque action adventure that featured a nubile heroine wielding a massive weapon. The game received substantial hype, appearing in a number of television spots advertising Sony's PS3. However, Heavenly Sword proved only a middling hit, selling less than 400,000 units in the US, according to The NPD Group.

The fate of Nariko remains to be determined.

The fate of Nariko remains to be determined.

Beyond unconfirmed rumors that Sony had put the brakes on a Heavenly Sword sequel, not much has been heard from Ninja Theory since the original game's launch. That changed today, though, as Namco Bandai announced as part of GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, that it will publish Ninja Theory's next project. Namco Bandai offered no name for the game, saying only that it would be available for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2010.

Other than saying that it will be an original property, Namco Bandai and Ninja Theory offered scant few details on the project. According to the British studio's cofounder, Nina Kristensen, the game will offer "rich storytelling, cutting-edge technology, and exciting gameplay beyond anything we have created before." Namco Bandai chief operating officer Makoto Iwai went on to say that the game will offer highly "cinematic" gameplay.

For more on GamesCom, check out GameSpot's continuing coverage live from Germany.

37 Comments

  • mluiz16

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 9:33 am GMT

    Latest issue of Gameinformer spilled the beans on Ninja theory's latest title, Enslaved. It's set in a post apocalyptic era and the main protaganist is a wild man named Monkey who prefers to stay away from the few humans left. He is captured by a slave ship, but escapes with the help of a girl whe is his complete opposite. He gets out with the girl, but gets knocked out, giving the girl enough time to modify a slave collar and put it on his forehead. She is now in control and he has to help her get back to her village. Like Heavenly sword, Andy Serkis is on the team and he does the animations for Monkey. They also enlisted hollywood writers and cinematographers to make a visually stunning plot driven game that taps into the characters emotions. Looks like a great upcoming title.

  • Omen22

    Posted Sep 2, 2009 11:28 pm GMT

    Heavenly Sword was never intended to have sequels by Ninja Theory.

  • drangel_jam

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 9:17 am GMT

    What happened to the HAvenly Sword IP, did it die? I thought it was supposed to have sequels a la Uncharted.

  • firehawk998

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 12:50 am GMT

    Heavenly sword was a great game. I loved it but the problem wit the game as many here would agree it was too short.

  • TheClown24

    Posted Aug 20, 2009 3:50 pm GMT

    PLEASE make heavenly sword 2!!! ill pay in cookies!

  • karlpenno

    Posted Aug 20, 2009 10:06 am GMT

    heavenly sword reminded me of prince of persia meets god of war with a female main character!a great game, the first one i had for the ps3

  • LosDaddie

    Posted Aug 20, 2009 8:41 am GMT

    Make a sequel for both X360 and PS3 please

  • xincubuzzx

    Posted Aug 20, 2009 5:58 am GMT

    that game was entertaining just like metal gear great cut scenes cinema i want more games like that

  • RobVII

    Posted Aug 20, 2009 3:03 am GMT

    summer movies arent short lol they're too effin long!

  • freefadi

    Posted Aug 20, 2009 1:46 am GMT

    "cutting-edge technology"? since it will be on both PS3 and Xbox 360 I really doubt it, HS was originally planned to be released on the Xbox 360 but when the development team realised the power of PS3 they shifted to Sony. It could turn out to be cinematic and rich in the story telling section though, well, we'll just have to wait and see.

  • hamzah1235

    Posted Aug 20, 2009 1:26 am GMT

    Heavinly sword sold 1.36 million copies i dont know what the hell they are talking about
    Go to vgchartz.com

  • Bigboss232

    Posted Aug 20, 2009 12:46 am GMT

    Scareface_dm playstation owners buy more games than 360 owners. There have been many reports on that.

  • NuKkU

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 7:08 pm GMT

    Im interested cant wait to see what it is

  • brian_13un

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 5:39 pm GMT

    Looks intersring

  • BillyColeman

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 4:05 pm GMT

    ClaTheNinja you must be the bigest dumb ass iv seen here yet. re stop being a survivor horror back when re4 was made as a die hard fan yes re5 was lacking not becuse of the 360 jack. hint dead riseing how meny were on screen in yet the game ran fine. that all falls on capcom the main man behind re left so thay had to come up with a way to fin the game off. ooooo and lets not for get left4dead wich has an ass low of ai on screen at once and runs fine as well. the ps3 has yet to show that sort of power and you can blame that on sony for useing blueray instend of dvd rom wich meny ppl have sed like EA is harder to make games for. tell me why go all out on the ps3 if it wont sell as much of the game as the 360 hmmmm sorry was in a rush

  • lamprey263

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 4:03 pm GMT

    hopefully their increased familiarity with the PS3 will allow them to touch up some issues like they had in Heavenly Sword, my biggest concerns being that the animations sometimes got choppy and sluggish (but nothing too bad it ruined it for me), but all in all the game was very enjoyable, looked great, and I'm sure with the increased familiarity with PS3 development they'll make something that's quite spectacular

  • chaisemon

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 3:32 pm GMT

    i gues the developers can put more content in a blu ray disk and let the playstation players unlock the content thru purchasing the unlocking key from the psn. so that they dont have to download the dlc.

  • santinegrete

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 2:42 pm GMT

    @ClaTheNinja:

    You are right. What you said reminds me the Super Nintendo Vs Sega Genesis. Even some multiplatform games had more gameplay options in super Nintendo, but not in Sega.

  • scarface_dm

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 2:33 pm GMT

    why would they put more effort into over one console over the other if ps3 owners dont buy the games??

  • ClaTheNinja posted Aug 19, 2009 2:31 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    ClaTheNinja

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 2:31 pm GMT (hide)

    That wasn't necessarily the best way to say it, yixingtpot, but even as someone who owns only a 360, I agree it's time that developers start taking advantage of the extra space on Blu-Ray and extra power of the PS3 instead of worrying about making a game that is equal on both consoles.

    Resident Evil 5 is a good example of this. I think once Capcom made the decision to put it on 360, you saw the game's potential start dropping. Less enemies on screen (unlike what was promised in early trailers) and an unsatisfyingly short game. Plus it tried too hard to cater to the 360 audience and just left itself an awkward in-between mess that was not enough scare nor enough action. Nothing wrong with putting your game on both consoles, but don't sacrifice the quality just to make both versions equal. If one version ends up better than the other, oh well, so be it. The systems are not equal, so the games should not be equal.