Sega’s hero-based extraction shooter Hyenas has been cancelled alongside a couple of other games, the company announced this week. Hyenas specifically was named in the announcement of the “structural reforms,” but other games that weren’t named in the news were similarly cancelled. Sega attributed the decision to “lower profitability of the European region,” according to the announcement, and as such, the cancellations were directed towards Sega’s European studios. Hyenas was being developed by Creative Assembly, the same studio that’s made games such as the Total War series including its most recent game Total War: Pharoah.
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Hyenas never did get a release date with the game only listed as “coming soon” on Steam, but it did have several playtests over time that allowed people to go hands-on with it. The game itself was supposed to release for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC platforms.
Hyenas Cancelled
Sega’s announcement included only one line about the cancellation of Hyenas and the other unannounced games. As well as the absence of names, it wasn’t clarified how many games were cancelled that we’ll now never know about unless something on them is dug up in the future.
“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,” Sega said. “Accordingly, we will implement a write-down of work-in-progress for titles under development.”
The news continued to say Hyenas developer Creative Assembly specifically would be impacted by a “reduction of various fixed expenses.”
“We will implement reduction of various fixed expenses at several group companies in relevant region, centered on the Creative Assembly Ltd,” Sega added. “We expect to incur one-time expenses related to reduction of fixed expenses.”
Joining in the extraction-style race that was pioneered by games like Escape from Tarkov and has been adapted into other experiences like the dungeon extraction game Dark and Darker, Hyenas’ take on the formula was its hero-bases, zero-gravity combat where players looked to plunder what loot they could and get out alive.
Hyenas got its first beta at the very end of August, a closed experience where people had to sign up to play on the PC platform via Steam. Once that beta concluded, the Hyenas team called the experience a “rousing success” and said that a “galaxy’s worth of players” took part. According to SteamDB, the closed beta test peaked at 2,261 concurrent players.
“So many people poured their hearts into this project for many years,” a statement from the Hyenas team said following Sega’s news. “Please be kind and considerate to them as the news sinks in. We are working hard to find new roles within the business for the incredible talent that helped put HYENAS together.”
