Last month, all of the Argonaut Games PLC subsidiaries were forced into administration including JAM. Together with Jez San OBE, the former directors of JAM have bought back the business including all next-generation technologies; the Heavenly Sword intellectual property; and the entire JAM team. The UK's newest independent developer has been christened Ninja Theory Ltd. It is run by its original founders with no debts, fresh capital and a next-generation game that continues to wow all who see it in action. Jez San has joined the board as Non-executive Director.
Development on Heavenly Sword started early in 2003 a full year or two before most developers started experimenting with next-gen technology. Nina Kristensen now the Chief Development Ninja commented, "We have gone through hell tackling the creative, technological and business challenges of next-gen game development. But we've come out of the worst intact and it feels great to be a truly independent company once again."
Tameem Antoniades, Chief Design Ninja explained, "We made a strategic decision to start very early and craft a gaming experience worthy of the 'next-gen' moniker. We really want to make something pretty damn special rather than same old crap with shiny new graphics."
Mike Ball, Chief Technology Ninja at Ninja Theory added, "Industry insiders still tell us that there is still nothing out there that compares to the playable prototype we first showed them last May. I hope it's true as it shows that a small determined team can still achieve big things."