UK indie Ninja Theory has cut the ribbon on Senua Studio, a new division dedicated to bringing real-time virtual characters to life for stage, film, broadcast, games, and VR.

The Heavenly Sword and Enslaved developer has named the studio after its upcoming game, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, which showcased some impressive real-time cinematography tech when it debuted earlier this year.

During a demo at this year's GDC conference, the developer revealed that a scene from Hellblade was actually being performed live on stage by an actress, who was being rendered into the game world in real-time.

According to Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades, Senua Studio will help other developers and creatives harness that same tech to "push forward the future of real-time entertainment."

"We have demonstrated working solutions today, and want to push forward the future of real-time entertainment, be it live performances of digital characters for stage or broadcast, shooting fully-rendered CG scenes in real-time for previs, or interacting with believable characters in VR," explained Antoniades.

Ninja Theory says Senua will cover all the bases, offering services in the areas of live performance, real-time cinematography, pre-visualization, and VR experiences.

More information, including how to get in touch with the Senua team, can be found on the Ninja Theory website.

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