Ninja Theory’s foray into multiplayer games, Bleeding Edge, will not see any more new content, the developer says. The studio has moved on to other projects, and while Bleeding Edge remains playable on PC and Xbox, it won’t be getting any new fighters or maps from here on out.
While it’s true that Ninja Theory has other games in the works – such as, most notably, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II – a major factor in the decision is undoubtedly a lack of players. On Steam, Bleeding Edge had just four players active worldwide, with a 24-hour peak of only nine. That’s barely enough to support a single 4v4 match.
It’s a shame, since Bleeding Edge is a rather good multiplayer fighting game. Banking on Ninja Theory’s experience with DmC: Devil May Cry and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Bleeding Edge felt snappy and responsive. But the players never really showed up in sustainable numbers: even at launch, the highest number of concurrent players Bleeding Edge ever saw on Steam was just 1,464.
That means another studio will be shutting down new production on a multiplayer game less than a year post-launch. Hero-based multiplayer battlers have proven to be a surprisingly difficult genre to break into: LawBreakers, Battleborn, and (most recently) Crucible have all tried and failed to gain traction in the field that’s been dominated by Overwatch and battle royale games for several years now.
With the studio now focusing on our new projects (Senua’s Saga, Project Mara & The Insight Project) we have decided that there will be no further content updates for Bleeding Edge. The game is still playable on Xbox and PC. Thank you to the fans & keep teaming up & causing chaos!
— Bleeding Edge (@BleedingEdgeNT) January 28, 2021
Again, Bleeding Edge will remain playable, at least for the time being – but there won’t be any new characters, costumes, or locations to look forward to, alas.