Ninja Theory’s critically-acclaimed action-adventure game, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, was one of the most popular games released in 2017. If you have yet to experience it, developer Ninja Theory has released an optimization patch today on Xbox Series X/S, updating a number of visual elements for new-gen consoles.
The new update allows the game to take full advantage of Microsoft’s ninth-generation gaming hardware, meaning Hellblade not only gets improved basic visuals but includes additional perks, such as DirectX raytracing and three graphical modes: Performance, Resolution, and Enriched, with the latter mode offering support for raytracing.
If you own an Xbox copy digitally or physically, you will receive the update at no additional cost; the game is also available on Xbox Game Pass as well as Xbox Cloud Gaming. An optimization patch for the PC version of the game is currently in development, though there are no plans to bring this update to additional platforms at the moment.
Hellblade is not the only game released on a previous console generation that received an Xbox Series X/S optimization patch. Several first-party Microsoft titles released on the Xbox One received similar updates, including Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Gears 5.
The update comes at an interesting time for Senua’s Sacrifice, as the game recently celebrated its four-year anniversary yesterday. Ninja Theory is currently working on a sequel titled Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, which was announced in late 2019 and will launch as an Xbox Series X/S console exclusive and Windows 10 PCs, with the game guaranteed to be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch.
Ninja Theory also confirmed that the optimization patches for Senua’s Sacrifice will not impact the development of Hellblade II as the team is partnered with QLOC, a studio that helped the team port Hellblade onto the Nintendo Switch to assist with the updates.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.