Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
About a year and a half ago, Sega subsidiary Creative Assembly announced Hyenas, a new sci-fi multiplayer shooter. The game was set to be Sega’s first shooter in years, and recently went into its Alpha this past summer. Plans for Hyenas were abruptly thrown out of the window this morning when Sega announced the game had been canceled as a result of restructuring.
Sega announced the cancellation of Hyenas in a press release. Attributed to the dreaded “restructuring,” Sega says that Hyenas was canned alongside some other unannounced projects. “In response to the lower profitability of the European region, we have reviewed the title portfolio of each development base in Europe and the resulting action will be to cancel 'HYENAS' and some unannounced titles under development. Accordingly, we will implement a write-down of work-in-progress for titles under development.” The post also includes an update to Sega’s outlook for the upcoming fiscal quarter.
Hyenas was revealed back in the summer of 2022, showcasing an original roster of characters shooting it out in space. In the time since, Creative Assembly revealed some cosmetic crossovers with other Sega properties and put the game into Alpha so that players could get their hands on it. We here at Shacknews got to check out an early preview of Hyenas earlier this month and enjoyed it quite a bit, but held concern about how it would fare in the incredibly competitive multiplayer shooter market.
Following the news of Hyenas’ cancellation, a Eurogamer report claimed that Sega is also expected to lay off several members of the Creative Assembly team. It’s unclear how many employees will be affected, but the layoffs are said to impact “positions across the studio.” It’s the second video game industry layoff story in as many days, as Blizzard let go a chunk of the Hearthstone team yesterday.