"Key to this model is that we’ve kept our budget low and, as such, we don’t need to sell millions to break even. We need to sell in the hundreds of thousands of copies to make our money back, which gives us the confidence to make a game that isn’t aimed at everyone. Our lower budget means we can take more creative risks without fear of not being able to achieve the multi-million unit sales that the big blockbusters now need to be deemed a success.
"Hellblade sits in this middle-space: about half the size of a regular AAA game, about seven to nine hours for a playthrough, and sold digitally at half the price of a regular AAA game. Our hope is that if we can make the independent AAA model work for us, others can follow too and we can bring more diversity and creativity back to AAA quality gaming."