This :) Here's a video from GDC about exactly that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL9X1Z0OAbs

Ninja Theory never hid that Hellblade is half the price of a AAA game because it's also half the size of one, so people shouldn't get it expecting a full-length action-adventure.

I've been on the fence regarding this game for a while, as I highly dislike the setting and the art direction, and the combat always felt too "Dark Souls" from the moment I saw some combat gameplay videos. The only things that interest me are the facts I trust Ninja Theory's history with their other games, and the whole psychosis approach.

Also, as much as I'm tired of the whole Iron Age setting, at least this time we're killing Vikings, so kudos to Ninja Theory for that.

The price does not reflect half a game. And besides, thats no excuse. Were only making half a game?! I want a full experience

Will "AAA quality indie game" be a new genre or just replace the old "narrative-driven" in game descriptions?

Well, it reflects half a *AAA* game... which usually go for $60~. Hellblade is being sold for half of that, so, half the price of a AAA title.

I haven't played it (and probably won't), so I can't talk much. My advice would be to wait for someone who's actually played it to tell us how "finished" the game and the story feel; I mean, they were aiming for a 6-8 hour game, that's still a somewhat decent length for an action-adventure, I guess...

Plus, Tameem Antoniades told Game Informer that «What I hope it is… I hope it feels like there’s no filler in it; that it feels like it’s a good, worthwhile experience that will stay with you and it doesn’t feel like it’s padded out. Because I think that’s one of the things I feel [is] frustrating about triple A games is this idea that you have to justify the price point and so you’re encouraged to fill out the game with stuff that – if you wanted the pace you wanted it to be at – you probably wouldn’t put it in there. (...) I don’t think we’ve fallen too much into that trap in the past, hence our games have traditionally been a bit shorter maybe… but yeah», which might mean Hellblade is shorter than a AAA game because they're basically leaving out padding and filler and focusing on "what matters" (whatever that may be).

I'm worried about the game's length (or lack thereof), too, but let's wait and see, maybe they pulled just the right size for the game?

AAA games are not defined purely by graphics quality, though. When you play games like GTA or Witcher 3, you quickly realize that certain aspects of those games, such as the sheer size and amount of content, wouldn't be possible without huge production budgets and dev teams. Small Indie games such as "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter" arguably have the same level of visual quality, but I don't think anyone uses the term AAA for such games. Seems like a stretch, if we start calling any release with great/realistic 3D graphics a triple A game.
If only. What I've seen of the gameplay ( and I admit, I haven't seen much ), seems much more minimalistic and shallow, compared to the combat of the Souls series. I could be wrong, but I get the impression they're primarily focusing on storytelling and atmosphere. So it's probably closer to a Telltale style game, just with fancier visuals. Nothing wrong with that per se, but I suspect it's probably quite linear and without much replay value.

Exactly. It does not inspire confidence how at no point was any sensible description provided. It's as if somone convinced the devs and GOG that "psychosis" is enough of a buzzword to sell anything.

What about shooters like the endless Call of Duty sequels or Homefront? The "sheer size and amount of content" there is a linear, 4-5 hour long campaing and we still call them AAA.

You can't have full experience by playing a game, you have to create one, that's the only proper full one.

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Any chance for some dev passing info if they did evaluate linux version, and what's the chance?

ACG Review

(There was also a praising JIm Sterling review that got a 1/10 because of a nasty bug due to the game autosave that prevented him from finishing the game. The review was removed, though)

All in all, I'm pretty interested in it now. Seems pretty unique. And I dig the less combat heavy nature of the game. And the game is not that short to me (6-8+ hours maybe)

Raised an eyebrow at that too. But then again, my definition of an AAA title was A-class game by A-class developer and with A-class publisher, so it'd be absolutely impossible to have an independent AAA title, that 3rd A can't be there, period.
But that's not a bad thing, considering how much of an issue I take with big publishers. So rather a bad thing that they market it as such really.

To make a truly good game, you'd put all that stuff to justify the price and not make it be filler. But either way I don't find full prices justified for basically any game for a long time now. Gone are the days of games aiming for the 100-hour mark and releasing at $50 or less full price, golden age of RPGs and all, but that will remain what I judge all others by in terms of content, $1/hour minimum, <$0.5/hour for a slow, completitionist approach.
(But then again, my "hill to die on" pricing gripe is regional pricing of course, and this one also falls foul of the prices above base crime of course, fully in the 1 EUR = 1 USD sense, and as is the norm recently also applying the hiked up Euro price to non-Eurozone and even a couple of non-EU countries. No damn way just for that alone.)

About this game in itself, seems interesting in the sense of what it attempts to do and portray, not so much as a game in itself, and I'd say that'd be what it should be judged for most. Guess that's what the devs are hoping for as well. A lot of hype was built up though, and can fall from up high if it doesn't meet those high expectations though. So let's see.
Personally, seems like something I'd be interested in watching a good (no-commentary!) let's play of. That's about the extent of the interest. Midnight Eastern US time? Doesn't seem particularly weird, if they picked US as primary market but made sure the release was at the same time everywhere.

I've seen the video, and I'll wait until they have fixed this. One saveslot is just a shitty move by the developer. If it saves in a moment you are about to die automatically it's even shittier.

Oh Jim Sterling took the video down?
Interesting.
It was quite apparent he liked the game and gave that low score exactly becaus ehe liked it until then and this diappointed him.
It shows how stupid the recent trend of many games of offering only 1 save and no control over it to player is stupid.
Is it really that hard to have more saves?

There are also these tweets from TB:
Performance
Feature

People still care about what TotalBiscuit has to say about videogames? The dude is just an elitist snob twat who seems to think he's the target audience for *every* game. Clearly, he's not. No one is.

I'm not the target audience for Hellblade, either (I'm sick of Iron Age/Viking stuff), but that doesn't mean I have to crap on the game just because it isn't for me. Deus Ex isn't for me but the fact it is a great game is undeniable. Plus, poor old douche John Bain ends up contradicting himself by saying the game has no gameplay whatsoever and then ranting about the "permadeath"/one save delete if you die too many times. If there's no gameplay, how is he even getting killed that many times? Also, that other dude whose video review was posted previously says in the comments -- and rightfully so -- that the game isn't *that* hard and a player shouldn't have any problems not dying all that much. He also adds that if you are dying a lot in Senua's Sacrifice, you're better off playing chess. It's maybe too harsh of an opinion, maybe one that falls in line with the "git gud" mentality that I'm not too fond of, but one that makes sense, nonetheless. I don't play Dark Souls because it's not for me. I don't play cRPGs because they're not for me. That fact doesn't entitle me to say all of those games are crap just because I dislike them or because I'm bad at them. Because, well, let's face it, if Mr. Bain is dying all that much on Hellblade, he's probably pretty bad at the game and should move on to something more aimed at him, maybe talk about what's good and bad about those games, instead of talking about a game he clearly isn't the target audience of.

As for Hellblade, I want to thank rgnrk for linking that ACG review. Short but informative, it clarified a lot of things for me and *should* clarify a lot of stuff for those on the fence -- or those who still don't even know what the game is about or how it plays (though comparing it to a TellTale interactive novel always seemed a bit extreme, to me, there have been dev video diaries and gameplay videos out there for a while, come on). I'm still not sold on it, but at least I now can see this game under a more positive light. It does seem to have a lot of things I thoroughly enjoyed -- and I'm glad the combat isn't as slow, "tactical" and boring as it looked like in the 10 minute IGN gameplay video GOG linked --, but, sadly, I can't take much more media set in "cool gritty" Iron Ages.

Best of luck to Ninja Theory, though, I hope your game does well enough, despite the usual shit the "Cynical Brit" talks about every game and Jim Sterling having found one bug. Here's to hoping that most of the people actually make their own minds about the game instead of just listening to the popular contrarian "YouTubers".

Oh, I remember now. That's why I haven't visited GOG general forums in months.

Yes, he probably took it off because the bug only happened to him, and it was apparently triggered by him missing a torch. So at least it's not random and could be avoidable.

It's the way of today of doing hardcore/difficult games. The way of the Dark Souls. I rather be able to save the game myself when I want to, but WE ALL know it's more immersive and scary and hardcore and true gamer only having one. Dark Souls fans say so.

ACG mentions the performance issues too, but on everything else...he is TB. He doesn't like puzzles nor story. So I wouln't have expected otherwise. I listened to his opinions and podcast in the past, but I find it increasingly harder to do nowadays. His self absorved persona has skyrocketed, or at least that's how it seems to me.