Hyenas was first unveiled to be an upcoming PvPvE game that was developed under Creative Assembly. This was a surprising video game reveal as the studio was mainly known for just RTS games. Now, they were able to embark on a new genre for the studio, and the reception seemed rather positive. Hyenas was set in the future, where you were essentially a futuristic pirate seeking valuable loot. Likewise, there were reports that this was a massive budgeted game, but it lacked the creative direction from management. As a result, the game didn’t capture the charm that would make it an appealing title for fans.
Ultimately, the game was killed off, and Sega took a major financial blow. In the future, it looks like Sega will not be looking to take new risks. Creative Assembly managed to get the project going in 2017 after the launch of Alien: Isolation, another game that was a bit off the typical genre for which Creative Assembly was known to develop games. While it might not have managed to turn out a massive profit, the game was well received by fans and continues to be enjoyed today. Unfortunately, it looks like the amount of money wasted to bring Hyenas into the marketplace is going to stop these studios from steering their creativity too far away. That’s at least according to the comments made by Sega Sammy Holdings president, Haruki Satomi.
Thanks to the VGC, we’re discovering that a recent financial briefing presentation featured Haruki Satomi. Haruki stated that each studio has its strengths and weaknesses. It was during a period that the studios were showing strong performance of their titles that allowed them to adopt a new strategy of venturing out to new areas. Furthermore, it was noted that Creative Assembly was good at offline games in the RTS genre, but they took on a new challenge to develop an online FPS game.
The Sega Sammy Holdings president noted that the game was not good and that they opted to cancel the development of Hyenas. As we advance, Sega intends to make new adjustments that would have studios focus on their specialties. So again, for example, Creative Assembly will be sticking towards offline RTS games. That might be a bit of a bummer for some developers who might want to try new things, but it’s likely Sega will be extremely cautious about what projects to invest in after dealing with the Hyenas financial hit.
