Hellblade 2 finally gets May release date

Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 finally has a release date: 21st May 2024.

Announced at tonight's Xbox Developer Direct, the game will be released across Xbox Series X/S consoles and PC, arriving on Game Pass on day one.

The game will be similar in length to the first and cost $49.99 as a digital-only release, according to an Xbox Wire blog post released after the Direct.

During the Direct, we heard more from developer Ninja Theory and saw some fresh snippets of gameplay. The studio aims to "craft life changing art with game changing tech" - for Senua's Saga, a new motion capture studio has been built for enhanced realism and binaural audio is now used not just for voices but music and sound effects too. This is definitely one to play with headphones!

In this sequel, Senua is on the trail of Vikings who have enslaved her people in Iceland. She is no longer in such fear of her visions and must adapt to her unique perspective as a beacon of hope for her people.

Combat has also been reworked for this game and promises to be incredibly brutal as Senua fights for survival against Draugr in every battle.

And once again, Ninja Theory has worked with Professor Paul Fletcher and people with lived experience with psychosis for an authentic experience.

Hellblade 2 was first announced at The Game Awards back in 2019, with first gameplay shown two years later at the 2021 awards.

Further trailers have been released ever since, with fans of the first game eagerly awaiting a release date.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice follows the titular Pict warrior on a vision quest to Viking Hell, all the while haunted by her past as a metaphor for psychosis.

Our Eurogamer review of Senua's Sacrifice praised its "powerful exploration of mental health".

The first game was released across multiple platforms, before developer Ninja Theory was acquired by Microsoft in 2018. Senua's Saga is therefore a major new exclusive for Xbox.