Sega has cancelled development work on Hyenas, a sci-fi extraction shooter which had enjoyed several closed beta tests in recent months – including public-facing tests at Gamescom 2023. The decision reportedly arrives as part of major “structural reforms” at the company, as it attempts to streamline its European operations.
In a press release on the SegaSammy website, the company flagged poor economics in the United Kingdom as the reason for the game’s cancellation, as the UK is now reportedly less profitable due to economic downturn, and high inflation.
“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,” Sega said. “Accordingly, we will implement a write-down of work-in-progress for titles under development.”
The unannounced games that join Hyenas in cancellation have not been revealed.
Read: Epic Games is laying off 870 staff, around 16% of workforce
Over on Twitter/X, the Hyenas development team announced the cancellation of the game in a heartfelt message thanking fans for their support.
“We are so sorry to announce the end of Hyenas’ development before we were ever able to bring our full vision to you,” the Hyenas team wrote. “While the decision to cancel the project has not been made lightly, we know that doesn’t make it any easier to accept – for you or for us. We knew our plans were ambitious and we knew we were diving headfirst into competition with some of the greats. But we believed in the journey and we’re proud to have taken every step along the way.”
“So many people poured their hearts into this project for many years … We are working hard to find new roles within the business for the incredible talent that helped put Hyenas together. Thank you for the support.”
Despite the hope of those working on Hyenas finding new jobs elsewhere at Creative Assembly and Sega, it does appear the studio is now facing layoffs.
“We have made the incredibly difficult decision to begin a redundancy consultation process in some areas of our UK operations, alongside ending development of Hyenas,” Creative Assembly said on Twitter/X.
“This may, unfortunately, result in job losses. We fully understand that this has a significant impact on our people whether they are directly affected or not – which we are truly sorry for. We have always aimed to operate as a ‘people-first’ studio; that is foundational to our values and culture. While we must go through this incredibly difficult process, we will prioritise supporting our people at every step.”
Our thoughts are with those impacted by the impending layoffs at Creative Assembly.
