Sega’s biggest budget game, HYENAS, was abruptly cancelled last week, in what was described as ‘company-wide restructuring’. However, it appears that there may be more elements that have led to this game being discontinued. With a reported 6 years being spent on the development of the game, just how did they reach this decision?
Just what led to Hyenas being cancelled?
The game itself was often regarded as Sega’s attempt to break into what is already, a highly saturated live-service game market. However, the publishers were of the view that Creative Assembly’s PVPVE (Player vs. Player vs. Environment), shooter HYENAS, would be able to compete with what was released currently.
Needless to say, many of the developers at Creative Assembly were extremely unhappy and looking for some measure of accountability and honesty from the publisher. Total War YouTuber, Volound, spoke to many ‘whistle-blowers’ from Creative Assembly and following this, published an insider report about what happened with the game.
Related: Highly-Anticipated and Well-Received HYENAS is Getting Cancelled by SEGA – FandomWire
In his report, Volound notes that some of the concepts that they had for the game which were described as ‘unique’, were watered down to cater to the wider market and mass appeal. On top of this, there was what was regarded as a ‘difficult’ engine change halfway through development.
But possibly the most scathing statement from the insider report is that HYENAS lacked direction and that no one knew what the game was meant to be about. It may be this comment that was the final nail in the coffin for the game and saw Sega make that difficult decision.
Volound also suggested that the struggles experienced at Creative Assembly pre-dated the development of HYENAS, before even the concept phase. Creative Assembly’s 2014 title Alien: Isolation was well received upon launch, and nominated for awards across various categories.
But despite this, the game was still seen as a commercial flop. This was even though it performed better than the most recent Alien inspired game, 2013’s Aliens: Colonial Marines, which was without doubt, utterly abysmal.
Given the poor performance, a sequel never materialised and led to many of the developers at Creative Assembly packing their bags, never to return. The remaining team was brought together to work on the HYENAS project, which at that time was internally codenamed ‘Project Keaton’.
It was said that the initial concept was said to draw inspiration from shows like Firefly and have a loveable rogue character much like Han Solo from Star Wars. This would in turn be matched with gameplay much like what was seen in Escape from Tarkov.
However, as stated earlier, these concepts were watered down for mass appeal to the point where Developers weren’t clear on what the direction of the game was meant to take.
It was at this point that Director Neill Blomkamp was brought on board to assist the project, himself being a fan of the Alien: Isolation game. And for a time it gave the project a sense of direction but despite providing some clarity, the Developers decided to part ways with Blomkamp.
According to one ‘whistleblower’ the game only nose-dived from that point. Moving from a premium game model to a free-to-play model which included microtransactions, with many describing it is a ‘bland’ concept.
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Given that this was Sega’s most expensive project since Shenmue, it may not actually be that surprising that they have decided to bin the HYENAS game. Looking at comments from people from within Creative Assembly, it appears that this game would struggle in the already saturated market and could end up costing Sega more in the long run.
But what are your thoughts on the latest news for HYENAS? Are you disappointed that the game has been binned? Or do you think this is more a reflection of what is, the current state of the gaming industry? Get in touch, drop us a comment and let us know your thoughts.
Source: YouTube
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