During Sega Sammy’s recent quarterly earnings call, CEO Haruki Satomi touched on the topic of the shooter’s cancellation, and implied that Creative Assembly – a studio that has traditionally had expertise in offline-focused and real-time strategy games – was unable to convincingly transition to working on a live service multiplayer shooter. Now, following HYENAS’ cancellation, Satomi says Creative Assembly (and other Sega studios) will once again focus on their strengths.

“Each studio has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the favorable winds of the early COVID-19 period, coupled with the strong performance of each title, led us to adopt a strategy of accelerating more, even in areas where those studios have not tried yet for further growth,” Satomi said (transcription via VGC). “However, some studios did well and some did not, so we have decided to focus again on the strengths of each studio.

“To put it simply, Creative Assembly was good at offline games in the RTS genre, but they took on the challenge of developing HYENAS, an online game in the FPS genre.

“However, although the game itself was good, we decided to cancel the development of HYENAS because we did not think it would reach a quality that would satisfy our users when we considered whether we could really operate this as a competitive online game for a long period of time.”

Following HYENAS’ cancellation it was claimed that the game had the largest ever development budget for a Sega title, but struggled with behind-the-scenes production issues like a lack of clear direction from the leadership a switch in engines partway through development.

However, it seems development faced more than its share of issues. YouTuber Volund spoke to anonymous former developers who revealed a lack of direction, with much of the leadership “asleep at the wheel.” An alleged engine change “part way” through the process and “not committing to do anything adventurous” despite entering a saturated market. VGC corroborated all this with its sources.

It gets even worse – former developers also revealed to the site that this was reportedly the biggest budget for a Sega game (which Volund also heard). Such was the alleged importance of the project, that “towards the end, there were people from Sega Japan more or less permanently at the UK office,” according to a developer.

“This has NEVER happened the whole time I’ve worked at Creative Assembly,” the developer said. “They occasionally visited and checked how a game was looking, but as I said previously, generally hands-off.”

Creative Assembly’s layoffs also allegedly involved cutting those from departments that weren’t involved with the shooter, with frustration towards leadership. VGC reached out to Sega for an official comment, so we’ll see what it has to say in the future (if anything) about the same.

Taking to Twitter, the Total War and Alien: Isolation studio said in a statement that along with cancelling HYENAS, it’s also beginning “a redundancy consultation process” in “some areas” of its UK operations, which “may” result in layoffs in the coming days. The developer says that it will “prioritize supporting” affected employees through this process.

“For those whose jobs are at risk, we will work to re-allocate them into other available roles within Creative Assembly wherever possible, and ultimately minimize any job losses,” the developer wrote. “Our commitment to our projects and players has not changed; we will deliver more incredible experiences to our players all over the world for decades to come.”

Creative Assembly is not the only gaming studio to have been hit with layoffs recently. Yesterday, it was also announced that Epic Games would be laying off 16% of its workforce, which translates to around 870 employees.

Following an internal announcement to our employees, please see the below statement: pic.twitter.com/b6LPonVagV

— Creative Assembly (@CAGames) September 28, 2023

A reduction of fixed expenses for group companies in the relevant region, focused on Creative Assembly, will also be implemented. Despite the above, the company continues to consider “measures to improve profitability in European bases apart from above. We will announce the specific details and impact from them as soon as we make a decision.”

However, due to the above measures, Sega Sammy expects to incur record losses of 14.3 billion yen (approximately $95,804,995) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. There is no change to its full-year consolidated operating results forecast for the same period. Based on new titles launching in the third quarter and the performance of its Amusement Machine Sales Area, it will revise the forecast as necessary.

Slated for a 2023 release, HYENAS was an extraction shooter where three-player teams would scavenge artifacts in a post-apocalyptic setting. It was to release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC, with a closed beta concluding earlier this month on Steam. Whether its cancellation will lead to changes at Creative Assembly remains to be seen, so stay tuned.

Originally announced back in 2022, HYENAS involves groups of players heading out to scavenge for pop-culture artefacts from a ruined Earth. Each match is set to have several groups of players competing for these artefacts, with each group having up to 3 players.

The game features quite a few playable characters, and earlier this year, we saw a new character introduced for the game who is essentially a massive fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, to the extent where they dress up as the Sega mascot in the game.

As part of the story of HYENAS, the rich moved on from planet Earth on to Mars, with the rest of humanity stuck living in a gigantic orbiting slum known as the Taint. Billionaires from Mars have been hoarding pop-culture artefacts, and groups of HYENAS attack these billionaires to reclaim what they see as their right.

HYENAS is yet to get a proper launch date aside from a 2023 release window. The game is slated to come to PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.

Ghostrunner 2

Ghostrunner was easily one of the biggest surprise hits of 2020, and fans were absolutely impressed by its fresh gameplay ideas and the one hit one kill design philosophy overruling it all. A sequel was known to be in the works, and the recently unveiled Ghostrunner 2 looks primed to build upon the foundations of the original in new ways. Ghostrunner 2 will once again thrust players into the dystopian setting of Dharma City as they slash and dice their way through hordes of new enemy archetypes and other obstacles. In addition to having motorcycle levels, the game will also feature better boss fights and more complex level designs among a slew of other improvements. It releases for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S sometime in 2023.

Now, Creative Assembly has revealed another new playable character for the game- Hero-Ki, a cosplay artist and former minor celebrity on Earth who now finds himself on The Taint, where he uses his abilities to pull of heists. Hero-Ki is inspired by none other than Sonic the Hedgehog himself, as is plainly visible in the costume he wears and the sort of quips he rattles off. Meanwhile, using his cosplaying prowess, he can also instantly transform himself to make him look like his foes. Check out the trailer below for a primer on the character.

Meanwhile, Creative Assembly and Sega have also confirmed that HYENAS is kicking off a closed alpha today, exclusively for PC players, for which you can sign up through here. This is one of several alphas that the game has held so far.

HYENAS is in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It is due out sometime this year.

Over 50 games are being showcased, including Sega’s HYENAS and The Expanse: A Telltale Series. The trailer also hints at The Last Case of Benedict Fox, Witchfire, Sifu and more appearing. Along with developer interviews and world premieres, “exclusive content” is promised for VR, PC and consoles. There will also be playable demos.

Content director Daniel Dawkins stated, “We can’t wait to share our first broadcast of 2023, which combines a carefully curated mix of the most exciting and innovative upcoming multi-platform games. We’re making some small tweaks to our show format, with a new Ones to Play section focused on games with playable demos, and another new spotlight slot that we’ll be talking about in the coming weeks.”

Of course, there are even more showcases in store for the coming months. Though E3 2023 won’t feature the likes of Nintendo (along with Sony and Microsoft, reportedly), Ubisoft is confirmed for the show, while Konami is rumored to be revealing a Metal Gear Solid 3 remake and a new Castlevania. Sony is also rumored to be hosting a showcase before E3, while Xbox has a showcase that could offer some bombshell announcements. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Announced back in June, HYENAS has groups of players set out into its maps to scavenge for pop-culture artefacts from a ruined Earth. The game had held a closed alpha test back in July.

In a statement, live product director Alex Hunnisett said that the studio has taken feedback from the first closed alpha into consideration, and tweaks have been made to various aspects of HYENAS for the new alpha test as a response.

“As 2022 closes out, we’re hyped to be expanding The Pack with our biggest Alpha Weekend yet,” said Hunnisett. “We’ve heard your feedback and will be bringing new features and improvements that will enhance your games, along with a few extra community surprises thrown in.”

Like the last time, the new alpha test for HYENAS is also closed, but players can apply to try the game out through its official website. HYENAS is set to release on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2023.

Currently, Creative Assembly is building up a team of developers for the new game, and has sent out a call to action for potential developers to apply. Open positions include a senior combat designer, a lead concept artist, and an animation programmer, among other roles.

Development of the new game is being handled by the CA Sofia studio in Bulgaria. The studio has previously worked on multiple Total War DLC releases, as well as A Total War Saga: Troy. Despite its work on a new game, the studio will also continue to work on Total War releases with its own dedicated team.

Creative Assembly unveiled another action game—HYENAS. The game, a competitive first-person shooter with its own unique twists, kicked off its closed alpha back in July.