Sega cancels Hyenas, other unannounced projects from Europe
Update (September 28, 2023): Creative Assembly has confirmed that the cancelation of Hyenas announced earlier today will go hand in hand with "a redundancy consultation process."
"This may, unfortunately, result in job losses," a statement by the company reads. Creative Assembly announced it would try to re-allocate as many jobs internally as possible.
Original (September 28, 2023): Sega has announced that Hyenas, the hero-based extraction shooter under development at Creative Assembly, has been canceled. It was supposed to be released in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S and was playable for the public during gamescom 2023.
Staff at Creative Assembly were told about the cancellation of Hyenas at 9am BST on September 28, 2023, according to two GLHF sources, giving them no additional time to prepare for the news. Some employees found out at the same time as the public.
“Due to falling profits in the European region, we are reviewing the portfolio of titles developed in Europe, and Hyenas as well as some unannounced titles have now been canceled,” Sega stated in an official communiqué as translated by GLHF’s Georgina Young. “We will be reviewing the reduction of games developed in Europe going forward.”
Creative Assembly's Hyenas won't see the light of day.
Creative Assembly
The statement also announced that cost-cutting measures would be implemented at several of the group’s companies in Europe, but mainly at Creative Assembly. Amplitude (Humankind, Endless series) and Sports Interactive (Football Manager) are among Sega Europe's studios.
There is currently no information on what these other canceled projects are and if they are from Creative Assembly or other development studios from Sega Europe.
Aside from Hyenas, Creative Assembly is working on several new entries into the Total War series of strategy games as well as a fantasy action game. Creative Assembly Sofia, the company’s Bulgarian wing, is putting the finishing touches on Total War: Pharaoh, which is launching in October 2023.
Financial documents from Creative Assembly have long hinted at a very costly development process for Hyenas, which means that this is likely a massive hit for the company. There was controversy around a price hike for Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC recently, which the company argued was necessary due to rising costs.
