Hyenas: Chronicle of a Foretold Death

When Creative Assembly announced its next game in June 2022, the somewhat unusual idea surprised a lot of people. Hyenas It was completely different from anything the studio had produced, and just like the death of Santiago Nasar, the death of this project also seemed to have been written in the first lines.

As a subsidiary of Sega, the British studio is known for its strategy games, especially with the series Total war. Over the years, they have taken risks in other areas, such as when they adapted the first part FIFA International Football Association For PC, or when they created the fun Vikings: Battle of Asgard And the acclaimed Alien: isolation.

despite of, Hyenas It will be a completely different beast. Operating as a multiplayer game, it will pit five teams of three to compete, with everyone still having to deal with computer-controlled security systems that will be spread across the map.

This premise is no longer very popular, but when we get to know the game’s settings everything becomes more… different. in Hyenas We will be part of a theft and extraction team, and our target is valuable pop culture objects stored in spaceships kept by billionaires.

With frenetic gameplay and ultra-colorful graphics, Hyenas It was directly reminiscent of the arcade era, where the game never took itself too seriously. This can be seen from the Richard Nixon masks that players can wear, to items related to Sega’s main brand, Sonic.

In addition to this relaxing atmosphere, Creative Assembly’s creation also relied on unusual mechanics, such as a weapon capable of spewing a type of foam which can be used to create protective barriers and bridges, or the zero gravity system, which can be activated to dramatically change the battlefield.

But if all this hype might sound interesting on paper, managing the marketing of this proposal was more complicated than the creators imagined. With the game expected to be released in 2023 and without adopting a free-to-play model, during a Q&A session with investors and executives from Sega Sammy Shown The situation was worrying.

“We cannot talk about this title as the details have not been announced yet,” they said. “Since this is a challenging title, we are striving to improve its quality at the front of the development line as we head towards launch. We are also making final adjustments to your business model in parallel.

However, as alarming as this response was, the following months gave some hope to those who were concerned Hyenas. In addition to taking it to Gamescom, an exhibition in Germany where people can try out the FPS game, Creative Assembly also put it through a testing period on Steam, which took place between August 31 and September 11.

These measures can indicate that developing Hyenas It continued, but we now know that was just the improvement before death. This is because, due to the need to restructure its European division, Sega released Sammy Next bomb:

“In response to lower profitability in the European region, we have reviewed our core development bond portfolio in Europe and the resulting action will be to cancel the bonds Hyenas Some titles are in development that have not been announced. As such, we will implement a reduction in work in progress for titles in development.

Credit: Disclosure/Creative Assembly

The publisher also revealed plans to reduce expenses in the region, which will directly impact Creative Assembly’s headquarters in Horsham, England. It is worth noting that in August 2022, the studio announced that it was working on creating an action game, in addition to another that was not revealed. However, these projects were developed in the city of Sofia.

Therefore, it is difficult to know to what extent this restructuring by Sega will affect these titles, but with the cuts spreading out there, I would not be surprised if the professionals in the Bulgarian capital are affected as well. A demonstration of this occurred last May, when something like this struck Relic Entertainment and 121 Pro They were expelled.

“Sega is in good financial standing and remains fully committed to supporting and investing in Relic Entertainment, and the franchises it is responsible for, including the popular series.” Company of heroes“,” He defended himself Publisher at that time. “We are confident that after this restructuring, the studio will be in a position of strength to continue delivering exceptional experiences to players around the world.”

Credit: Disclosure/Creative Assembly

On that occasion, the studio also relied on the difficulties it had faced last year, as well as the economic situation that Europe was facing. “The combination of significant project delays, rapid cost increases, high inflation and exchange rate fluctuations has had a negative impact on our business.” They claimed Relic General Manager Justin Dowdeswell and Director of Operations Heidi Ives.

What the monuments personnel also don’t help with is the performance Company of Heroes 3which although done Decisive successfailed to please the audience as much, recording 53% positive reviews among Steam users.

Back to HyenasMaybe my perception that it didn’t have much of a future was due to it not being part of the audience it was intended for, but the truth is that I’ve never been able to see much fun in a Creative Assembly title. However, I do regret its untimely end, because I know that many people worked hard to produce it, and certainly many others saw in it a title that had the potential to keep them entertained.

Given the history of the studio, it is possible that something good will come out of this project, but if Sega realizes that it is not developing as it should or that it will not be possible to profit from the game, then it will not be the best option. Is it to stop this bleeding as quickly as possible?

Sega (almost) forever

Credit: Disclosure/Sega

What is certain is that the wave of discounts launched by Sega was not limited to its European division. For those who love the publisher’s past and use mobile devices to consume some of its classics, Bad news The latter was the end of Sega Forever.

The initiative, which was launched in June 2017, aimed to present some of the company’s games that achieved great success in the eighties and nineties, as they were distributed for free and ads were displayed, and if the user wanted to get rid of them, all he had to do was purchase the title in question.

Initially, only Mega Drive games were available, but the idea was to expand the catalog and offer some games created for the Sega Saturn and even the Dreamcast. Furthermore, the publisher plans to expand the service to PC and consoles, reaching – Accordingly With the company’s marketing director, Mike Evnas, it’s something similar to Netflix in your catalog. But it seems that this will not happen unfortunately.

The first indication that something was not right was Sega Forever website, which although still on the air, has not received an update for some time. It is also worth noting the fact that X/Twitter account They began to engage more with the company’s past, sharing curiosities and little snippets of the games. So, when publications there stopped at the end of August, some people became skeptical.

Behold, in the past few days, what we do not want to know has come. Several games that were part of the Sega Forever catalog have been removed from the App Store and Google Play Store. In this cut, those selected are: After the peak of the flame, The monster has changed, Beyond the oasis, Comics Zone, Decap attack, Dynamite Heidi, Iswat, Gunstar Heroes, Phantasy Star Classics, Shinobi’s revenge, Restar, Space Harrier 2 that it Victorman.

As a result, anyone who has already downloaded these games will still be able to play them offline, but will no longer receive updates, and upon opening them a warning will be displayed, with nothing said about the future of those who continue to download them. Available on Android and iOS stores.

Although much of Sega’s catalog is available in other ways, it’s a shame not to move forward with this initiative. The idea of ​​offering these classic games for free, while supporting the console and giving us the option to purchase them at affordable prices, has always pleased me, even though I realize I’ve never played a game that was available in this way.

However, this is another bet from Sega that doesn’t seem to have worked out too well and I wonder what their next project will be that won’t withstand the impatience of managers/shareholders.