The developer has decided to focus on Senua, the next title in the Hellblade franchise.
Ninja Theory, the developer behind the Hellblade saga, is no longer working on Mara Project after deciding to focus on the Hellblade franchise. In an in-depth interview with Xbox Wire about the Hellblade sequel Senuastudio head Dom Matthews said he took the 85 people working at Ninja Theory and asked them to expand on the experience from previous games for the upcoming title. “And given that the entire team is working on this game, I suspect some people might be wondering what happened to Mara Project – I made the decision to no longer work on this,” he continued.
The Microsoft-owned studio first announced Mara Project in 2020, while also working on a 4v4 team-based melee combat game called Bleeding edge. Ninja Theory announced that it had stopped development Bleeding edge in 2021, less than a year after its release. Mara Project was supposed to be about a “real, grounded depiction of mental terror” featuring “accounts of real experiences and in-depth research.” During the announcement, the studio released a teaser video showing a realistic apartment and a close-up of a person who is presumably Mara herself.
“These decisions are never easy, but I did it to take advantage of the opportunity to have all the talent and expertise of the studio, all 85 creatives, working together to realize the potential of what Senua can be,” Matthews said in the Xbox Wire interview. Ninja Theory announced Senua during the Xbox Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest 2026. It’s a full-on action-adventure with expansive combat, more puzzles to solve, and more freedom to explore than its predecessors. It’s apparently been in development since 2024, so Mara Project could have been dead years before we even heard about the studio’s decision.
