Ninja Theory's Bleeding Edge Has Roots in MOBAs

Ninja Theory’s Bleeding Edge is an intense online multiplayer action game, but it originally began as a MOBA with a much greater focus on tactics.

Speaking in a developer update video, creative director Rahni Tucker said Bleeding Edge’s roots can be tied to multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games more than to Overwatch, a game to which comparisons have been drawn before.

“We started off with kind of towers and minions and lanes and this type of thing,” Tucker said. “But we found as we played, the game sort of told us what it wanted to be and it sort of led us away from that. Because it was hard to hold that kind of level of strategy in your head at the same time as playing in third-person.”

That action isn’t shooting-based, as is the case with many other online multiplayer games that have “hero” elements. Instead, you’ll still lock on and dodge enemy attacks like you would in Ninja Theory’s single-player action games. Even the ranged characters use lock-on, so it should be easier to jump from one to another than if they used a traditional aiming system.

Bleeding Edge officially launches for Xbox One and PC on March 24, and it’s one of several games Ninja Theory has in development. The studio is also working on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, the experimental The Insight Project, and Project: Mara, which will focus on “mental terror.” Senua’s Saga will be releasing on Xbox Series X and was introduced with an impressive in-engine trailer at The Game Awards 2019.