HYENAS - Creative Assembly's new Sci-Fi multiplayer shooter [CANCELED]

[Black]

I think it got deleted from steam, all of it.

 

[v1c70r14]

We could have had a new Empire, a new Napoleon, a new engine.

Napoleon was underrated but would you really like to see current Creative Assembly make another one? I don't think they are capable of delivering historical games as good as they used to make anymore. Not that I think it is likely they'd make Napoleon 2, he's being denounced as a proto-fascist of late.

 

[deuxhero]

I played the Alpha of that a half year ago or so. Gameplay-wise, the game did nothing egregiously wrong, nor did it do anything particularly well. The art style is shitty and washes out the otherwise exellently animated characters.

Bottom line is, this is DOA.

It didn't even make it that far! 笑

 

[Infinitron]

We could have had a new Empire, a new Napoleon, a new engine.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...s-segas-biggest-budget-game-ever-its-claimed/

Cancelled Hyenas was ‘Sega’s biggest budget game ever’, it’s claimed​

AND HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR NEILL BLOMKAMP REPORTEDLY PROVIDED STORY DIRECTION

New alleged details on the development of Sega and Creative Assembly’s cancelled live service shooter Hyenas have been published, including claims that it was Sega’s biggest budget game ever before the company pulled the plug.

The Japanese publisher announced last week that it was cancelling the multiplayer shooter “and some unannounced titles under development” in Europe, following at least six years of development on the project.

Developer Creative Assembly has suggested the game was cancelled due to “ambitious” plans and high competition in the multiplayer shooter space.

However, a new video published by Total War YouTuber Volound – corroborated by VGC’s own sources – features claims from anonymous developers that a lack of direction, disruptive engine change, and overly-cautious design contributed to its downfall.

VGC has asked Sega for comment on this story.

One anonymous developer wrote: “So what went wrong? Total lack of direction, many of the leadership asleep at the wheel but they never seem to lose their jobs. An engine change, part way through the process. Attempting to break into a saturated market, and not committing to do anything adventurous with the game.”

Hyenas, or ‘Project Keaton’ as it was known then, was greenlit after the critical success, but commercial disappointment, of Alien Isolation, following which the Creative Assembly ‘console team’ delivered the work-for-hire project Halo Wars 2, which is also claimed to have sold modestly.

CA’s management wanted to create a console game with broader commercial potential, with Destiny, Escape from Tarkov and PUBG cited as inspiration.

The game was a PvPvE (Player vs Player vs Environment) shooter with support for up to fifteen players in teams of three. The goal of players was to break into vaults spread across the map, battling AI enemies as well as other player teams, looting merch and escaping the ship alive.


“In the early days, Hyenas aimed for a ‘lovable rogues’ vibe, surviving in a messed-up world controlled by the elite, channelling Han Solo with a bit of Firefly for good measure,” one anonymous developer told Volound. “It sounded intriguing, but the details were vague. Earth was in ruins, the rich had everything, steal to survive, a gritty sci-fi setting with a touch of NASA.”

The game was originally planned to use the Alien: Isolation engine, but due to frustration with its tools, it was decided that the game would switch to Unreal Engine, which required a portion of the team to be temporarily moved to work on Total War.

In 2019, before Hyenas had been announced, Creative Assembly’s Twitter account posted a photo of Hollywood director Neill Blomkamp visiting its offices.

According to sources, the District 9 and Elysium director was a big fan of Alien: Isolation, and his trip to the studio was more than a social visit, as he was actually providing feedback on the game’s overall direction.

“He comes to visit the studio, and he’s shown what we’re up to,” one source told Volound. “He has some ideas of a direction to take it in, basically that you’re not stealing to survive, but Netflix/Steam/etc doesn’t exist anymore so DVD boxsets, music, games, all that physical media is now super valuable.”

This matched the synopsis of the game when it was eventually announced, which had players raiding huge ‘Plunderships’ on their way from Earth carrying valuable pop-culture relics such as old VHS tapes or vinyl records.

“He also had that idea of inserting a lot of internet humour and stuff,” the anonymous developer continued. “He even made a mood video to show what he was thinking, and to be honest after that period of ‘wtf are we doing here’, it was a real shot in the arm to have some DIRECTION (the project so often felt utterly rudderless).

At some point, Creative Assembly parted ways with Blomkamp and Hyenas was eventually announced during a live stream in June 2022. However, there was still uncertainty around the game’s direction and even its business model.

Hyenas was initially announced for consoles and PC. However, a year later, in summer 2023, Sega executives publicly called Hyenas’ development “challenging” and stated they would look at “adjusting” the game’s business model, possibly to free-to-play.


After multiple closed Alpha tests for the game, sources claim that Sega wasn’t happy with progress on the title, with Japan providing more scrutiny over the project in recent months.

Sources also confirmed that while Hyenas was originally planned as a premium game, by the time it was cancelled it had transitioned to a free-to-play model with microtransactions, though very limited post-release support had actually been designed.

Hyenas is believed to have been one of the ‘Super Games’ Sega often referred to in its financial results: ambitious, big-budget titles it hoped would pay off with big sales in the future.

Sega claimed in November 2021 that it would consider investing up to ¥100.0 billion ($882 million) over five years to achieve its ‘Super Game’ ambitions, which would cover the development of multiple projects.

Although it’s not public knowledge how much Sega invested in Hyenas, former developers told VGC they believe it was the company’s biggest budget ever for a game, beating 1999’s Shenmue which was once claimed to have cost around $70 million.

“I forgot to mention that Hyenas was Sega’s biggest budget game ever,” an anonymous developer also told Volound. “Towards the end, there were people from Sega Japan more or less permanently at the UK office, this has NEVER happened the whole time l’ve worked at CA, they occasionally came to visit and check how a game was looking but as I said previously, generally hands-off.”



The developer concluded by saying they weren’t angry with Sega for cancelling Hyenas, but expressed frustration that, as a result, Creative Assembly was making layoffs across the studio, allegedly including departments who had no involvement in the multiplayer shooter.

“I’m not angry with Sega for cancelling, to be honest, I firmly believe it only would’ve lost more money otherwise. They’re typically a light touch publisher, I guess because, in the past, the studio has been so profitable, I fear those days are now over, but we’ll see.

“I’m angry with the shit leadership, and for the people above them for not dealing with them. I had hoped that maybe after Hyenas flopped we could be kept on at CA if the next project was another nice low risk contract job like HW2, but most of us are likely being made redundant and I’m ok with that really.

“What I’m actually furious about is that the redundancies are affecting people who had nothing to do with Hyenas. Like IT, operations, marketing, HR, even some people over on TW, they bear no responsibility for this binfire.”

 

[lycanwarrior]

Cancelled loot shooter Hyenas allegedly "Sega's biggest budget game ever", new report claims:​

https://www.eurogamer.net/cancelled...as-biggest-budget-game-ever-new-report-claims

"They wanted characters who 'don't give a fuck maaan' and have heaps of 'tude'," one developer claimed, adding that while the powers that be at Hyenas didn't use these exact words, that was the idea. The end result was "unmemorable" and "unrecognisable" characters.

 

[toughasnails]

So the blame for the tone & theme of the game would be on Blomkamp, according to this stuff. I do wonder about it. I don't know anything about his personality but from what I remember of District 9 and Elysium I wouldn't peg him for "lol le ironic referential humor and MEHMEHS" kind of guy. So one wonders if this is them trying avoid blame for that aspect of the game as even their younger targer audience cringed at the character designs, humor, hell the central idea.

 

[Egosphere]

So the blame for the tone & theme of the game would be on Blomkamp, according to this stuff. I do wonder about it. I don't know anything about his personality but from what I remember of District 9 and Elysium I wouldn't peg him for "lol le ironic referential humor and MEHMEHS" kind of guy. So one wonders if this is them trying avoid blame for that aspect of the game as even their younger targer audience cringed at the character designs, humor, hell the central idea.

I don't get it, did he have any position there? From the sound of things he just dropped by and gave some feedback, and that's it. Why did they run with it? Do they not have dedicated people in place to decide on the story and the mood?

 

[Luka-boy]

Why did they run with it? Do they not have dedicated people in place to decide on the story and the mood?

Because by doing it, they can say "This famous person is a part of the project!" for marketing purposes.

 

[Egosphere]

Why did they run with it? Do they not have dedicated people in place to decide on the story and the mood?

Because by doing it, they can say "This famous person is a part of the project!" for marketing purposes.

You can just say that anyways after he dropped by, even without taking any of his input

 

[Lord_Potato]

You have a company that makes strategic games.

You order them to produce a competitive multiplayer shooter and shower them with funds.

The project fails because the company does not know how to produce a game so far outside their area of expertise.

Sega:

 

[toughasnails]

So the blame for the tone & theme of the game would be on Blomkamp, according to this stuff. I do wonder about it. I don't know anything about his personality but from what I remember of District 9 and Elysium I wouldn't peg him for "lol le ironic referential humor and MEHMEHS" kind of guy. So one wonders if this is them trying avoid blame for that aspect of the game as even their younger targer audience cringed at the character designs, humor, hell the central idea.

I don't get it, did he have any position there? From the sound of things he just dropped by and gave some feedback, and that's it. Why did they run with it? Do they not have dedicated people in place to decide on the story and the mood?

I didn't get that impression from the article, rather it sounds as if his involvement was both more substantial and longer lasting ("At some point, Creative Assembly parted ways with Blomkamp") than him just dropping by once and sharing some ideas. There is no indications as to whether his involvement was ever "official"\contractual tho.

 

[Egosphere]

You have a company that makes strategic games.

You order them to produce a competitive multiplayer shooter and shower them with funds.

The project fails because the company does not know how to produce a game so far outside their area of expertise.

Sega:

They made Alien Isolation. Not their first foray.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I think a good number of Alien Isolation's developers left CA after AI not selling well enough?

 

[Lord_Potato]

You have a company that makes strategic games.

You order them to produce a competitive multiplayer shooter and shower them with funds.

The project fails because the company does not know how to produce a game so far outside their area of expertise.

Sega:

They made Alien Isolation. Not their first foray.

True, but Alien Isolation came out in 2014. Since then they only made Total War games. Certain competences could have been lost.

 

[markec]

 

[Lord_Potato]

Imagine what we lost

 

[Ryzer]

Imagine what we lost

That's very LGBTQ unfriendly of you, as a liberal you should be open to this kind of people.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Imagine what we lost

That's very LGBTQ unfriendly of you, as a liberal you should be open to this kind of people.

I am! Deeply sorry I won't get to see Galaxia

 

[911 Jumper]

All these woke games have these vile character designs.

It's a reflection of the tastes and politics of those who created them.

 

[Chanel Oberlin]

The project fails because the company does not know how to produce a game so far outside their area of expertise.

Or it failed because it was a hero shooter without a single appealing character?

Nobody knows if it was competent gameplay-wise. No one played it because all the characters looked disgusting.

 

[karoliner]

Neill Blomkamp's "mood video" for Hyenas:

 

[Alienman]

The edgy cringe is too much.

 

[karoliner]

Sega should sell all of Creative Assembly to Tencent we may finally see good games again.

 

[Mitleser2020]

I am glad that dude got fired.

And being in the middle of a quiet, slow English town fits with it.

It is a really quiet town. And peaceful.

At a game studio where nobody ever gets fired.

It's really odd for a games studio to be in a quiet town. You rather want a studio to be in a major town to hunt for talent.

Whoever said Halo Wars 2 was successful is out of their mind.CA and Microsoft had a multi-game deal to take over Halo Wars. They purchased a building for the team to expand into and named it Spartan House. Halo Wars 2 was developed by CA, the Story was by 343 and the cutscenes were by Blur. SEGA were funded upfront for the game and CA used as a mercenary studio. Similar to Relic (owned by SEGA) making AOE4 for Microsoft. Anyways, Halo Wars 2 critically was mixed, and commercially was a massive flop. I think it topped out at 300K sales. Considering Blur charge about $1m for 1 minute of cutscenes this was a financial disaster of a game, and Microsoft pulled out of making Halo Wars 3. This didn't hurt CA directly considering they were paid upfront for HW2, and they decided that after working with other people's IP for so long, they wanted to work on their own. Also, Alien Isolation was a critical success, but a financial failure, only breaking even several years after release. These leaks are interesting for sure, but there's so much misinformation in them in my opinion. No fault of your own, you can't know and are just reporting what people are saying, but I'd love to know where some of this info comes from.

I may have been there from 2015-2017, but I live 5mins away and have friends still there. I know what the next three titles are, I knew there'd be TW layoffs before Hyneas even closed down... and I think because of this extra info I have I get frustrated at the false comparisons drawn between the shutdown of Hyenas and the impact it has on TW. From my understanding there's virtually no correlation between the two, they have separate budgets from SEGA, don't siphon money from one another, and have no bearing on fiscal reports (the idea that Pharaoh was to make up for Hyenas or something is ludicrous for reasons that would take up two more paragraphs here) and yet TW channels love to report on this because it has the name CA attached to it. Which is fine, but its feeding a narrative that isn't the reality inside for the TW teams at least. They actually have a much bigger issue at the moment than Hyenas and I'm waiting to see if anyone will leak the real "danger" TW is facing for its next few titles.

Total War has a few big ongoing issues right now, that meant they were going to face layoffs regardless of Hyenas. For one, their original Game Director for the next historical game left a few months ago, and has left the project in a bad state. I won't go any further into that. The other issue is the simultaneous development of the next three titles. This is also causing an internal tension. As well as this, many studios around the world are going through periods of layoffs right now. It's a combination of factors, mostly due to bloat and over-hiring during covid. The increase in cashflow is typically spent on investments and employees to lower your tax burden. This is certainly the case for CA. Their teams have ballooned up, and productivity has gone down. Case in point would be the DLC team is 3x its size during Warhammer 1's lifecycle, and yet DLC releases far slower and its sales have been slowing down too. Three Kingdoms 2 was announced in the Future of Three Kingdoms video, but its been quietly cancelled. The issue with the next Historical game has also drawn the ire of SEGA who are apparently much more cutthroat now with CA, whereas before they were very passive. This is for a few reasons, and is happening with companies like Sony and Tencent who are getting more involved with their western studios, because the Yen is massively suffering right now, and they need to cut costs.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

Such a shame. This game could have been what Monster Hunter: World is to Capcom, a celebration and love letter to all things SEGA, with dozens of royalty-free crossover events from across all their properties, from NiGHTS and Space Channel 9, to Samba De Amigo and Billy Hatcher. Hero-Ki's character design was just the tip of the iceberg. Of course, the prerequisite to all that would be for members of Creative Assembly themselves to actually be fanboys of all those games, an unlikely prospect considering what we know. Sonic Team would have had to send one of their own abroad to drum up the sufficient enthusiasm for SEGA's history. Thankfully, we still have PSO2:NGS (such that it is) filling in for all that crossover goodness.

Games with such a revolting art style derserve the rope. Cancellation's an absolute incline.

Can't say I disagree. The lack of visual interest would have been one of the biggest obstacles to broader appeal if this fuckfest actually did make it to market. Even a Borderlands-esque rendering style with all the models and environments exactly the same would have been a huge improvement.