Microsoft reportedly only announced Ninja Theory's new game at Summer Game Fest to try and attract a buyer for the studio

The plan to shutter or split with the Hellblade developers was reportedly already in place

Hellblade developers Ninja Theory are one of the numerous Microsoft-owned studios currently facing a very uncertain future, as the company look to either spin off or shutter a bunch of the developers under the Xbox banner. In Ninja Theory's case, the news that their existence hangs in the balance was made even more jarring by the fact they'd revealed a new game, Senua, earlier this month at Xbox's summer showcase. According to a fresh report, however, Microsoft had already decided they were going to kill or part with the studio prior to Senua's reveal, with that showing aimed - at least in the eyes of Xbox execs - at trying to boost the chances of Ninja Theory attracting some new investors.

The report from Game File, citing a source familiar with Microsoft’s plans, claims the idea was that Ninja Theory having just announced a new game would make any moneypeople tuned into the showcase more likely to view them as worth handing over some cash to. Well, that was reportedly the thought process of Microsoft execs at least, with the report noting that it's currently unclear whether any of Ninja Theory's bosses were in on that plan.

If the answer's no in the latter case, this would seem extra cruel on Microsoft's part. Sure, if you know you're about to put a studio in a situation where they'll need to secure outside investment in order to avoid closure as you withdraw your support, letting the game reveal go ahead in hopes it'll help attract such money's much more preferable to nixing it. However, not filling the folks putting together said reveal in on what it could mean ahead of time would walk back at least some of any goodwill generated by letting the show go on.

Beyond that, game reveals at showcases being aimed at investors even in normal circumstances is far from an alien concept. It's easy to get wrapped up in the marketing spiel that companies use to position themselves as talking primarily to regular players, the customers who've valued when we've got money to spend on the next product, and forget that businesspeople will be scanning through the reveals simultaneously with words like revenue on the brain.

Whether any trailer can overcome the optics of a parent company turning around a week or so later and making abundantly clear they don't think a studio is doing enough for them to be worth keeping under their umbrella is the question. Did Microsoft's execs think about that too hard beforehand? My money'd be on them being far more concerned with getting their ruthless cost-cutting penned in to save their own hides.

The full impact of Microsoft deciding they'd no longer like to back these studios will likely be felt early next month, with that reportedly being when the hammer will fall in terms of major job cuts.