Ninja Theory Staff Report Layoffs as Proposed Closure Puts Senua’s Future in Doubt

What's new: employees start posting​

VGC says the posts were first spotted by journalist Chris Kerr, and that VGC verified them. The outlet names these staff as among those whose jobs are at risk or have ended:

• Alessio Mellina, technical sound designer
• Katrin Mair, gameplay programmer
• Xoe Subari, PCap tech staff
• Loong-Wei Ding, technical director
• Matteo Tummino, sound designer
• Matt Le-Fevre, senior technical artist
• Pietro Berto, character artist
• Justin Pedersen, technical artist
• Daniele Galante, principal sound designer

These are examples, not a full list. The reporting doesn't say how many people are affected in total. It also doesn't say which of the nine have already left and which are still at risk. These details come from VGC's account of the individual posts. I haven't independently inspected the posts.

Mair wrote that she spent four years at the studio and that it was where she started her career. She also said it was "incredibly sad" that the team won't finish what it was working on. That is one employee's account. It isn't an announcement that the project has been cancelled.

How the studio got here​

The sequence matters, because the story changed sharply between July and September.

• June 7, 2026: Xbox revealed Senua at its Games Showcase with a 2027 release. In an Xbox Wire interview, studio head Dom Matthews said the team had about 85 creatives, all working on the game. He said it was a linear story on a larger interconnected map, not an open-world game. Kotaku later reported that Xbox revealed the game despite plans to spin off the team making it.
• July 6: CEO Asha Sharma announced a restructuring of about 3,200 roles across FY27, with roughly 1,600 eliminations on the first day. In that note she said Ninja Theory and Undead Labs had "entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3." At that point VGC reported no studio closures and no game cancellations.
• September 22: Matt Booty's "Continuing Our Reset" message announced 268 more role eliminations across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and central management functions. It also said the actions since July had brought Xbox roughly three-quarters of the way through the restructuring. On the divestitures, it said Compulsion and Double Fine had returned to management in August. Undead Labs had transitioned to a new publisher and would release State of Decay 3 on Game Pass. Ninja Theory was the exception. Booty said "two separate agreements for Ninja Theory fell through" and that Xbox would begin consulting employees on a proposed closure while "continuing to explore other paths forward."
• October 5: Employee posts begin appearing.

The 268 eliminations are not all Ninja Theory jobs. They are a company-wide figure, and the Ninja Theory consultation is a separate track.

Proposed, not final​

Xbox's wording is careful. The current position is a proposed closure rather than a completed one. Xbox hasn't named the parties to the failed deals or explained why they collapsed. UK employment law requires a formal consultation before redundancies at this scale. That would explain the process, though it doesn't tell us how it will end. Treat that legal point as outside analysis, not something Xbox has spelled out. A third-party commentary site suggests such consultations typically run for weeks. That claim is unofficial and I haven't verified it.

The Arkane studio is on a separate path. Booty said consultation there is underway and expected to continue through the end of the year.

What happens to Senua?​

Nobody has said. Xbox's September message didn't cancel, delay, or reaffirm the game. VGC calls its fate unconfirmed and now uncertain. The 2027 date, the platform list (including Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam and PlayStation 5), the Game Pass inclusion and the Play Anywhere support were all announcement-day details from June. None has been updated since.

Mair's comment about not getting to finish the work suggests the team is bracing for the worst. Still, it's a personal statement, not a corporate decision.

The "showcase as sales pitch" claim​

VGC notes a Game File report, relayed by Insider Gaming, that Xbox planned to part ways with the studio before the showcase and hoped the newly announced game would attract investor interest. That claim rests on Game File's sources, and Xbox hasn't confirmed it. If it's true, it didn't work. VGC says no sale appears to have resulted.

Why Windows and PC readers should care​

Senua was announced for Xbox on PC, Steam and Xbox Play Anywhere, so this is partly a question about what ships on Windows. The wider story is Xbox's attempt to cut layers of management, shed studios it can't profitably run, and fold teams into fewer business units. Sharma's July note argued the studio portfolio had grown too large, and Booty's September memo continues that reorganization. In practice that means fewer first-party studios, and a different mix of PC releases over time. That is my read of the stated strategy, not an Xbox forecast.

What to watch​

• The outcome of the consultation: closure, a late buyer, or another arrangement.
• Whether Xbox says anything about Senua's release plans.
• The October 6 all-Xbox town hall that Booty's message mentioned.
• Any final count of Ninja Theory redundancies, which no source has yet provided.

For now, the accurate summary is that a closure is proposed, consultation is underway, staff are already posting that they're affected, and Senua's future is unconfirmed.