Sega has made the decision to cancel Hyenas, the cooperative heist game being developed by Creative Assembly, the studio best known for the long-running Total War franchise. In the same announcement, it was revealed that several other unannounced projects will also be canned.
“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.” said Sega Sammy Holdings.
Sega is also planning some structural changes that will seem likely to result in layoffs, primarily at Creative Assembly.
“We will implement reduction of various fixed expenses at several group companies in relevant region, centered on the Creative Assembly Ltd. We expect to incur one-time expenses related to reduction of fixed expenses.”
Sega has previously described the development of Hyenas as “challenging” and was actively discussing changing its monetization scheme, perhaps hinting at going free-to-play, but the game was still actually scheduled to release this year. A delay was probably to be expected, but it’s surprising to see Sega cancel the project when it’s presumably reasonably close to being ready. To do so speaks to a lack of faith in the game
It’s even more surprising when you account for the fact that Hyenas held a closed beta in September and initial impressions from both outlets and regular players seemed quite positive.
As for Creative Assembly, they are due to launch Total War: Pharoah on October 11, taking their epic strategy to an Egyptian setting for the first time.
And finally, with Sega looking at doing some restructuring, I expect it will once again spark discussion over them potentially selling their videogame segment. Microsoft were very interested in them, mostly for their potential in mobile gaming, but Sega stated in June that they are not interested in acquisition talks currently,
