Uncharted 3 And What Could Have Been For Heavenly SwordMillions have played Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception by this point and the critical reception has been overwhelmingly positive. The globetrotting adventures of Nathan Drake have gone from being a popular series for gamers to a major multimedia franchise for Sony that might turn into a movie. The franchise is quite possibly the “face” of PlayStation now and it will help launch the PS Vita. It's been a remarkable and meteoric rise and clearly the credit belongs to Naughty Dog for elevating the franchise to new heights.
However, with the release of the third Uncharted, I can't help but be reminded of another PS3 franchise that was launched in 2007: Heavenly Sword. Yes, Ninja Theory's action game with cinematic production values was said to rival that of a blockbuster film. In fact, back in 2007, Heavenly Sword may have been an even bigger deal than Uncharted, launching with a heavy advertising campaign and an neat animated prequel series detailing the backstory of the universe.
Besides both being exclusive PS3 titles that came out in 2007, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Heavenly Sword have more in common than you might think. Both had heady story ambitions, placing a lot of emphasis on character building and mo-capped actors, and both were single-player games without any online play components. Both were well received; Uncharted: Drake's Fortune had the better Metacritic score of the two, but Heavenly Sword's heroine Nariko received a lot more attention due to her unique design. Both games also got dinged for not having enough content.
"Heavenly Sword could have been added to the long line up of successful series Sony has under its belt."
While Uncharted and Heavenly Sword may have had these similar roots, the paths of these franchises diverge wildly after 2008. Naughty Dog redoubled their efforts with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, creating the most acclaimed game of 2010 that also sold better than its predecessor (and it included a popular online multiplayer mode). By contrast, Heavenly Sword... went nowhere, despite plans for a trilogy.
"When we set out to do Heavenly Sword ... we wanted it to be a three-game story. We've had the story for the sequel for a while now,” said Ninja Theory co-founder Tam Antoniades in 2007. “Hopefully if this game is successful, then there's no reason why there shouldn't be a sequel and we'd very much like to go into that."
So what happened? The reason why there isn't a Heavenly Sword sequel isn't 100% clear. Ninja Theory and Sony seemed wedded to each other during the development process, at one point sharing development tips and office space. That all changed after the game released and didn't do quite as well as perhaps either party had hoped. It was implied that the fanboy pressure brought on the developer by doing a PS3 exclusive title wasn't to Ninja Theory's liking. Another issue was just the economics of releasing a console exclusive game this generation.
“Well, with Kung-Fu Chaos, we worked exclusively with Microsoft; with Heavenly Sword, we worked exclusively with Sony. And it’s really a time for us to go cross-platform, so we ultimately turned it down,” remarked Ninja Theory founder Nina Kristensen. “As a studio, we feel it’s the right thing to do. It makes things more commercially viable – and as an indie we have to be very commercially aware. It was great to work with Sony and get really intimate with the PS3 hardware; going forwards, that positions us to execute things properly on both PS3 and 360.”
“We’re not abandoning HS just on a whim because we want to go off and do something different – there’s a great huge raft of reasons behind us taking the direction we are – and it’s also the nature of the business that I’m not allowed to share any of those reasons with you, “ noted a Ninja Theory IT manager. “As for the ‘you’re just not doing HS 2 NOW’ comments – well one thing you learn in this industry is that you never say ‘Never’. So I’m not going to say we’ll 'never' go back and make HS2 – but it’s something I personally see as extremely unlikely.”
While Sony owns the Heavenly Sword IP, all rumors of a sequel from another studio have turned up false. Meanwhile, Ninja Theory has instead filled there time with Enslaved: Odyssey of the West. The game shared many similar ambitions compared to Heavenly Sword, mixing cinematic drama and action, even though the Asian-infused steampunk aesthetic was pretty dissimilar from the pseudo-medieval Asian environment of Heavenly Sword. The game became part of Namco Bandai's ambition to be a bigger publisher in the West.
Critically, Enslaved: Odyssey of the West fared just about as well as Heavenly Sword, if not a little better. Commercially, however, the game fell short of the expectations of a million sold during the holidays, managing less than 500k during the Fall buying season. Despite the kind words Namco Bandai had in support of the game early this year, Ninja Theory quietly acknowledged that Enslaved 2 is not being worked on, despite the studio's wishes.
Enslaved fell flat at retail and there are numerous possible reasons why. One is the strategic mistake of releasing the game during the busy holiday season, which has become a time for the biggest hitters in the industry and nothing more; this is something that Namco Bandai readily acknowledges. Also problematic was the name Enslaved: Odyssey of the West, which references a Chinese myth most Western consumers aren't familiar with and is pinned to the word “enslaved” which has a negative tone that does little to convey what the game is really about. While Ninja Theory should be commended for coming up with one of the most unique and original AAA gaming IP of 2010, the “newness” of the franchise likely worked against it, making consumers less likely to lay down $60 for the experience.
Regardless of the particulars for Enslaved's disappointing sales return, Ninja Theory's plan to go multiplatform failed horribly. Enslaved sold less on two established console platforms (with installed bases in the tens of millions) than Heavenly Sword did on PS3, which was less than a year out of the gate. Part of that is, I believe, a testament to the reception a solid console exclusive title can still have. Like it or not, gamers get excited for console exclusives, and I'd argue that Sony does right by their first and second party games – they have the largest game studio network in the world and they didn't short change Heavenly Sword (heck, they gave Lair more promotion than that deserved).
So if Heavenly Sword 2 one day became a reality, there's no reason to believe it wouldn't get the full commercial and technical support of Sony, and that's certainly a point in its favor. Another benefit to doing a second Heavenly Sword is exactly that – it's a sequel. It might sound unintuitive to some people, but making a sequel like Heavenly Sword 2 would have likely been both a safer bet at retail and likely result in a better game. There's something to be said for refining the systems of a game you've made rather than starting from scratch, and despite online forum cries for originality, game consumers crave consistency – how else can one explain the preponderance of AAA sequels that released in 2011 that have mostly done very well and in most cases, better than their predecessors.
Now I don't want to give the impression that I didn't like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West because I did, and I also enjoyed my time with Heavenly Sword. This is just a business suggestion; hindsight might be 20/20, but there's a subjective reason as well. See, my wife likes to “sidecar” with certain games and she enjoyed the story in Heavenly Sword only slightly less than Uncharted (which is truly the king of sidecar games). Basically, I think Heavenly Sword could have turned into Sony's kung-fu Uncharted with a little more work and I'm comparatively skeptical that Enslaved ever would have found a large audience given its odd atmosphere, despite its quality.
I don't know all the reasons why the relationship between Sony and Ninja Theory broke down; neither side is talking publicly about the matter, though the developer indicated they didn't make money on Heavenly Sword. If the powers that be at Ninja Theory had decided that Heavenly Sword was an investment in the future, rather than a sign to abandon single platform development and the IP, we might just be looking at a third Heavenly Sword game by 2011; I really believe that with some polished gameplay, a refined game engine and an established fanbase of returning customers (all things that Uncharted had), Heavenly Sword could have been added to the long line up of successful series Sony has under its belt.
It's been a rough existence for Ninja Theory as a whole, starting as Just Add Monsters and putting out Kung-Fu Chaos for the Xbox (a lighthearted party game that got slapped with accusations of racism), they have since produced two other original IP; I can't think of a another independent studio to have a similar track record this past decade. Now, their hopes are pinned on a reboot of the Devil May Cry franchise in what might be the most controversial AAA game to release in 2012. While I'm second guessing Ninja Theory's management about another Heavenly Sword, I honestly wish them the best of luck with DmC and hope for their sake that the game is not another critical darling and commercial bust, because frankly they deserve better than that.
