Extraction shooter Hyenas, which was in development at Creative Assembly, has been cancelled by publisher Sega.
In a statement published today (September 28), Sega Sammy confirmed that Hyenas and “unannounced titles under development” have been cancelled.
“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,” read the announcement.
The statement added that Sega Sammy expects to suffer “record losses of approximately 14.3 billion yen [£78.6million]” this fiscal year. As a result, the publisher will be making “structural reforms aimed at increasing efficiency” in its European bases.
Hyenas was announced in June 2022, and was a “hero-based, multiplayer extraction shooter” that tasked players with looting pop culture artifacts from spaceships and selling them to rich buyers on Mars.
“We know we’ve got something interesting on our hands, but we also know the odds are stacked against us,” shared executive producer David Nicholson when Hyenas was revealed. “To take on the biggest games in the industry, we need to hear what players think, right up front and early. ”
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Speaking to NME at Gamescom 2023, product director Alex Hunnisett described Hyenas as “a more approachable extraction shooter” that would have inverted a number of trends in the genre.
Though a release date for Hyenas was never announced, the game’s closed beta finished earlier in the month (September 15).
Looking ahead, Sega Sammy will “implement reduction of various fixed expenses” at Creative Assembly, which is best known for its Total War strategy series.
We recently played the studio’s next game, Total War: Pharaoh, and had a chance to speak with director Todor Nikolov about its “game within a game” court system.