Live service shooter Hyenas ranked as Sega’s biggest budget game ever before the project was cancelled just last week, according to a video published by YouTuber Volound.
Hyenas was in development at Creative Assembly, but Sega announced that it was pulling the plug on the game as well as other unannounced in-development projects at its European studios. Hyenas had been in the works for at least six years by that point.
An anonymous developer offered some insight into the project:
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.
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. 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.
Meanwhile, sources revealed that Neill Blomkamp, the director of films such as District 9 and Elysium, was a big fan of Creative Assembly’s Alien Isolation, and his trip to the studio (as confirmed by an image on the developer’s Twitter account) was to provide feedback on Hyenas’ direction.
Speaking of Blomkamp’s involvement, one source commented:
He comes to visit the studio, and he’s shown what we’re up to. 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.
Hyenas was originally known as Project Keaton and was given the green light after the strong critical reception to Alien Isolation, with management wanting to produce a console game with major commercial appeal. Inspiration cited at the time included Destiny, Escape from Tarkov, and PUBG.
[Source – VGC, Volound on YouTube]