Rest assured, Hellblade 2 marketing is coming

With Hellblade 2, one of Xbox’s biggest first-party releases, just around the corner and with barely any publicity, fans are afraid it won’t sell enough to retain the brilliant people who made the series. However, rest assured that Hellblade 2 marketing is coming—just with a lot of questionable timing and executions.

Hellblade 2 does have marketing, just not from Xbox directly

Microsoft cuts corners when they can, most notably in Xbox games marketing. Just last year, award-winning action game Hi-Fi Rush was shadowdropped on release, which was upsetting for a lot of fans like myself, who genuinely thought the game deserved more recognition than it was given.

Hellblade 2 seems to be getting the same treatment. The first Xbox social media post for the game we’ve seen in months was only uploaded last week.

What’s more hilarious is the timing—this post only came up after the dissolution backlash, where it was annoucement that amazing studios such as Tango Gameworks were dissolved for reasons the Xbox/Microsoft refuses to divulge.

None-the-less, Aaron Greenberg, the VP of Xbox Games Marketing, has assured that marketing has been planned and executed for the game. This post on X (formerly Twitter) was posted on May 3—way before the dissolution news broke on social media.

If you check @NinjaTheory’s recent posts, things seem to be aligned with Greenberg’s announcement. But it’s definitely weird that Xbox’s official accounts haven’t been reposting these posts, which is what publishers, who have bigger audiences than its developers, usually do.

This is what may have led people to believe that Hellblade 2 “isn’t getting any marketing.” After all, marketing is only really effective when there’s enough engagement.

In a funny turn of events, however, the lack of Xbox marketing for the game, combined with recent news of Bethesda studios being dissolved, has been getting the game free advertisement. We’ve even seen fans rally behind purchasing the game on 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 dissolving Tango Gameworks. I suppose we’ll see how sales pander out in the coming months.

For more on Xbox, check out Xbox Game Pass Core full game list on Pro Game Guides.