Hyenas was to be the new extraction shooter from Creative Assembly and SEGA on Steam. Now, just before release, development has been halted due to “low profitability.” This comes with a job cut at the developer, costing several jobs.
What kind of shooter is this?
- As Hyenas you break into the spaceships of billionaires and are supposed to make valuable loot, then escape with it.
- The gameplay is basically like a colorful, crazy Escape from Tarkov in space. The shooter had been in a playable alpha since January 2023.
- From the end of August to mid-September there was also a closed beta. The release was planned for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
This is what happens now with Hyenas: In a statement from September 28, SEGA Sammy announces that there will be “structural adjustments” in the European locations (via segasammy.co.jp).
In this context, the development of Hyenas and other yet-to-be-announced titles should be halted. The extraction shooter was actually set to release sometime in 2023, but development has now been stifled.
As a reason, SEGA cites the “low profitability” of the European region. The official X account of Hyenas tweeted about it:
We know that our plans were ambitious and we knew we were diving headfirst into competition with the big players. […] We hope you remember with us the action-packed zero-G chaos and the persistent community of players that made us special.
Creative Assembly explains that jobs will be cut
The developer of Hyenas, Creative Assembly, shortly thereafter released its own press statement (via X). It states that the studio will likely have to cut jobs as part of the restructuring.
How many positions will be affected and who would be impacted is not disclosed by the studio. Creative Assembly emphasizes, however, that it wants to assist those whose jobs are at risk in finding another position within the company, if possible.
The studio is also behind major titles like Total War: Warhammer 3, which recently received significant criticism for the latest DLC. In comments on X, it is stated that this could have been an opportunity to utilize the vacant positions to improve Total War.
However, Hyenas itself probably never managed to build the traction that was desired. At least that’s how MeinMMO author and shooter expert Dariusz Müller sees it:
There are only 2 types of new successful PvP shooters left and both are bad
