Last week, after it hosted a public beta, Sega and Creative Assembly announced they would be cancelling Hyenas. Based on reports coming out of Sega and Creative Assembly, the game was practically finished, but was being cancelled nonetheless. This week, more details are emerging on why that decision was made, and they paint an incredibly bleak picture at Sega as well as Creative Assembly, which announced it would be undergoing a redundancy consultation process as a result of Hyenas' cancellation.

A whistleblower spoke to a popular Total War YouTuber, which has been verified by VideoGamesChronicle, and claimed Hyenas was a problematic project right from the get-go and stemmed from many of Creative Assembly's non-RTS team that led the development of Alien: Isolation leaving after Sega classified the sales of Isolation a disappointment and did not greenlight a sequel. That non-RTS team was eventually assigned to work on what would become Hyenas, but the game was initially conceived as a game about a "lovable cast of rogues" with gameplay inspired by Escape from Tarkov. At one point the game even had Neill Blomkamp providing consultation on the story and worldbuilding. However, Sega wanted to emphasize the general market and slowly over time the project went from being a premium AAA game to a free-to-play project with microtransactions. Also, the game switched its engine halfway in development AND the game that was featured in the public beta apparently was a last minute change.

In corporate filings made public to shareholders and the rest of the industry, Sega Sammy stated:

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.

This is a major turn of events after Sega announced in 2021 it would be investing up to ¥100.0 billion ($882 million) on new game projects classified as "Super Games" outside pre-existing properties like Total War, Yakuza, and most of Atlus' wheelhouse. Hyenas was widely regarded as being the first representatives of that initiative.

All these companies stupidly chasing trends outside their wheelhouses while neglecting the stuff that people actually came to them for in the first place.

Square Enix with its various moronic endeavors like Babylon's Fall to basically all of its Western development (the Tomb Raider games were pretty good but then, of course, they put Crystal Dynamics on a live services game.)

Ubisoft with its endless array of dumb and ill fated projects.

Now Sega plowing $100,000,000 into an untested team to make a game chasing a trend that was profitable for first movers half a decade ago but hasn't had a big new breakout in forever.

I'm not saying that companies should just churn out the same games over and over, but there are some big bets that make sense (get the team that made the excellent Titanfall 2 campaign to make a story based Star Wars action game) and some that make no sense at all. And everyone hates live service games except those who love them...who already have games to play.

I mean it's Sega so dumb decisions are a given, but they have so much incredible IP they aren't doing anything with or they could make new games that leverage what they're good at. Instead they are releasing endless Yakuza games (I like Yakuza but Ishin, Gaiden, and Yakuza 8 in one year is too much), some Sonic, and then these dumb "supergames" that are likely all going to flop.

Meanwhile Capcom is over here making record profits by focusing on their core competencies. Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Monster Hunter. I guess they took a shot at the multiplayer thing with Exoprimal too, but that doesn't seem to have been a massive money sink, and it actually came out.

I'm all for companies stretching out and trying new things, but trying the same horrible live service garbage that everyone else is failing out isn't really trying something new, it's just chasing a trend that you're not positioned to actually successfully catch.

Hyenas, Hyper Scape, XDefiant, The Finals, Destruction AllStars, Fairgame$

There must be some reason why the stylized cartoon look with brash genz characters keep getting made because they've all bombed hard so far. If they're gonna fail at least be interesting to look at. Even single player games like Saints Row 5 provoke the same reaction.

Yikes. That seems kind of dire for Sega? I haven't been paying much attention to the business end of games, but how are franchises like Sonic and Yakuza doing for them?

@thepanzini: I don't think the art style is the problem because games like Overwatch and Fortnite, which had similar art styles, were massive hits. I think it's rather that a lot of uninspired games just use that art style. I don't think that a different art style would have helped Destruction AllStars.

@sparky_buzzsaw: They're Sega so things are always dire! I think they're not in the worst condition that they've been in. Sonic Frontiers sold well and Yakuza has been doing well. Of course Sega is perfectly capable of flushing away all its profits on stupid bullshit but that is the Sega way!

How's Sammy doing? They still raking in the pachinko money? Is it finally time to sell off Sega to Microsoft after the Activision deal goes through?

"We'll always have Football Manager" is probably written on a boardroom whiteboard somewhere.

Sega and Konami should go on a road -trip of rediscovery together.

Edit: like ffs... Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, the Shenmue Kickstarter, Christian Whitehead's new game, there is clearly a market for the games they've since stopped making.

Fun to learn that Neil Blomkamp was involved with this. Dude has failed at almost every project he's been involved with in the last decade and a half but keeps getting more and more opportunities.

With Shenmue, I would argue that Yakuza/Like a Dragon started with the same blueprint and has grown into a significantly better franchise. Sega is better off without Shenmue at this point.

Maybe one day we'll also get the Jet Set Radio "super game" that Sega is rumored to be working on.

@chaser324: I don't disagree (Like A Dragon was my personal GOTY that year). My opinion is born mostly out of the frustration that they felt continuing the franchise would have been too costly, but spending that having the Total War team make a live service shooter somehow made more sense.

Personally I think there could've been room for both, like how Microsoft had both Gears and Halo for the 360 generation. Shenmue is a very different thing to me that Yakuza - even if only due to it's aching sincerity.

@mach_go_go_go: Okay you could probably do Shenmue simultaneous to Yakuza/Like a Dragon if it were just mainline Yakuza but have you seen how many Yakuza related products they are churning out these days? Judgment, Like a Dragon Ishin, the Gaiden game...

Shenmue is a different thing but is it a different thing that sells? It's more or less an open map adventure game that does some combat stuff while Like a Dragon is an RPG/brawler with some open world elements.

Also Street Fighter VI World Tour is sort of a Shenmue.

I'd like Shenmue and Yakuza to exist in the same space so that it has a chance of becoming more of a genre. Other people can take what those games have in common and make something new with it. Life Is Strange is so down-to-earth; what if it was an open world semi-life-simulator? An American Shenmue where you play as a teenager with a superpower, where choices matter.

The thing about Hyenas is that, if you look at it very cynically, everything about it seemed designed to be monetized in very "this is popular" kind of ways. The setting of stealing old pop culture is (admittedly a somewhat decent) excuse to do tie-ins to monetize nostalgia. The gameplay is Tarkov-like because of course it is, that's about to blow up. "What if funky characters like Overwatch/Apex/Valorant etc etc?"

The whole thing felt very designed by Committee, like "if we just take these parts and throw money at it, we'll make even more money!" I think Sega said about one of their "super games" "this has to potential to make half a billion dollars a year" or something to that effect. I dunno if Hyenas was that game, but the attitude is certainly there, and if the goal was just "make money" and not "make a game that is cool because THIS" that also attracts a large audience... well, I'm not surprised it never seemed to come together or be interesting.

@cozmicaztaway: Overwatch came about after an MMORPG failed and Blizzard wanted to recycle some of the assets.

Fortnite was originally intended to be primarily PVE and the battle royale mode was made quickly in response to PUBG's success.

My point is that games that blow up are often totally unpredictable accidents. You can't really engineer a huge viral hit. You can try, and many have, but most of the massive hit games are a result of a combination of luck and someone having a vision that resonates.

@bigsocrates: Games that do blow up tend to have a unique hook, many of the failed GAAS titles often don't have one.

The only clone that took off big that I can really think of was Call of Duty, and even then its moment was taking a risk and changing the setting.

Yeah, this is more one of those things people tend to blame the wrong thing for. Like "I HATE SUPERHERO MOVIES, FUCK MARVEL!" isn't the problem, the problem is: companies chasing the massive trend while half-assing it to play "catch-up."

It's been going on since the 360 became the "brown desert" console after Gears and CoD4 became megaton hits, it happened with MMOs and MOBAs, and now it's happening with battle royale.

It's not the style that's a problem, it's the style being implemented to cover a lack of fresh, innovating ideas.

@eccentrix: You've KIND OF just described "inFamous."

@undeadpool: Rocket League is virtually identical to one of Psyonix's previous titles Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars yet considerably more succesful, the visual design and package can be a massive difference.