With Hellblade 2, one of Xbox’s biggest first-party releases, just around the corner and with barely any promotion, fans fear it won’t sell enough to retain the brilliant people who made the series. However, rest assured that Hellblade 2 marketing is coming—only with a lot of questionable timing and execution.
Hellblade 2 has marketing, just not from Xbox directly
Microsoft has cut corners when they can, especially in Xbox games marketing. Just last year’s award-winning action game Hi-Fi Rush was overshadowed upon release, which upset many fans like myself who really thought the game deserved more recognition than it got.
Hellblade 2 seems to be getting the same treatment. The first Xbox social media post for the game we’ve seen in months was just uploaded last week.
What’s more hilarious is the timing—this post only came out after the meltdown backlash where there was an announcement that amazing studios like Tango Gameworks were disbanded for reasons that Xbox/Microsoft refuse to disclose.
However, Aaron Greenberg, the VP of Xbox Games Marketing, made sure that marketing was planned and executed for the game. This post on X (formerly Twitter) was posted on May 3 — well before the breakup news hit social media.
If you check @NinjaTheorythe recent posts from, things seem to match Greenberg’s announcement. But it sure is strange The official Xbox accounts did not retweet these postswhich is usually done by publishers who have larger audiences than its developers.
This is what may have led people to believe that Hellblade 2 “doesn’t get marketing.” After all, marketing is only really effective when there is enough engagement.
In a funny turn of events, however, the lack of Xbox marketing for the game, combined with recent news about Bethesda studios disbanding, got the game free advertising. We even saw fans rally behind buying the game during launch week, to show support for Ninja Theory.
But will it be enough? Hi-Fi Rush’s BAFTA and TGA trophies didn’t stop Microsoft from disbanding Tango Gameworks. I guess we’ll see how sales progress in the coming months.
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