Sega Sammy has said it plans to cancel Creative Assembly’s Hyenas and other unannounced projects.
The move was announced on Thursday following a review of its games business.
“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,” it said.
“Accordingly, we will implement a write-down of work-in-progress for titles under development.”
Segaalso plans to reduce its fixed expenses in Europe, with a focus on cutting costs at Horsham, England-basedCreative Assembly.
“We will implement reduction of various fixed expenses at several group companies in relevant region, centered on the Creative Assembly Ltd,” it said. “We expect to incur one-time expenses related to reduction of fixed expenses.”
Update28th Sep 2023 / 12:00 pm
VGC sources have confirmed that layoffs are planned at Creative Assembly. We’ve contacted Sega for more information about the number of staff that are set to be impacted by redundancy.
Update 228th Sep 2023 / 3:56 pm
Creative Assembly hasconfirmed it will be making redundancies across the company.
Creative Assembly’s next game,Total War: Pharaoh, will be released on October 11. Last August, the studio said it wasworking on a new action gameas well as another unannounced project.
Due to the structural reforms Sega’s planning to implement, which will occur mainly in Europe, the company now expects to record a loss for the current fiscal year ending on Jul 15, 2025.
Announced last June, Hyenas is a robbery and extraction multiplayer shooter that was scheduled for release this year onPC,Mac, current and last-gen consoles.
It had five teams of three battling AI and each other to steal pop culture memorabilia from expansive, themed spaceships with zero-g sections.
Doubts about the game’s future were raised this summer whenSega described it as a “challenging” title.
Further reading
Sega Sammy executives were asked if they could provide an update on the game, such as its business model and expected impact on earnings, during a Q&A session following the publication of the company’s quarterly earnings in August.
“We are unable to talk about this title because the details have not yet been announced at this time,” they said. “As this is a challenging title, we are striving to improve its quality towards the release on the front line of development. We are also making final adjustments to its business model in parallel.”
