Hyenas was the next release from the British studio Creative Assembly. Unfortunately, it’s recently been confirmed by publisher Sega that the project – along with some others – has ceased development.
The company made the announcement (translated by Sega Sammy) saying that the “business environment surrounding the Consumer area has been rapidly changing.” The message goes on to cite the effects of COVID-19 as part of the reason for Sega having to “implement structural reforms aimed at increasing efficiency.”
This means that Hyenas has officially been cancelled in response to “lower profitability” in Europe, as have some other “unannounced titles.” At the time of writing, Creative Assembly has not made a statement about these events. In fact, the game’s Steam page still says it’s “coming soon.”
A slap in the face for fans
What’s worse is the game had just had its closed beta. The last post on the official Hyenas Twitter page thanked fans for their support, adding that the team was figuring out “where we go next.”
Although better known for the Total War series, Creative Assembly moved away from historical strategy to bring us Alien: Isolation in 2014. This was not only a terrifying and beautiful love letter to Ridley Scott’s iconic 1979 film, but an example of how the Alien franchise could successfully translate to video games.
Hyenas was going to be a “hero-based, multiplayer extraction shooter” that pitted you against others in a sci-fi world containing “epic zero-G combat.” Sadly, that’ll never come to fruition. Fans who played and enjoyed the recent closed beta will no doubt be saddened by the news.
