Creative Assembly shooter Hyenas canceled by Sega with "structural reforms" on the horizon

Sega has canceled upcoming multiplayer shooter Hyenas and some other unannounced titles in a bid to improve profitability.

The Japanese publisher said it has chosen to implement "structural reforms" in a bid to increase efficiency and reduce expenses throughout its studios in Europe.

It's unclear whether the company is considering layoffs as a result of those cost-reduction efforts, but Sega indicated it will be attempting to "implement [the] reduction of various fixed expenses at several group companies in relevant region, centered on the Creative Assembly."

Creative Assembly is the UK studio best known for working on the Total War series. The company currently has almost 900 employees spread across five studios and announced Hyenas in June 2022.

The project was billed by Creative Assembly as a hero-based multiplayer extraction shooter that would let players form crews to pull off heists. At the time of writing, Creative Assembly hasn't commented on the news and Hyenas is still listed as "coming soon" on Steam. Curiously, the project only concluded its PC closed beta less than two weeks ago.

Sega keen to focus on existing franchises

Elaborating on its decision to scrap Hyenas and other projects, Sega said it has achieved rapid earnings growth in recent years by "promoting the global branding of its existing IPs," suggesting the company isn't eager to invest in franchises and titles that might be considered unknown quantities.

"The business environment surrounding the consumer area has been rapidly changing, including reactionary decline from the stay-at-home demand in COVID-19 and the economic downturn due to inflation in European region, and profitability has been lowered mainly in European bases," continued a press release.

"To promptly adapt to these changes in the environment and improve profitability, we have decided to implement structural reforms aimed at increasing efficiency, mainly at our European bases and reviewed the title portfolio in those bases. Then we have made the difficult decision to cancel some titles under the development as well as to reduce the fixed expenses."

Looking ahead, Sega said its consumer segment (which houses its video game operations) is expected to record losses of roughly 14.3 billion yen during the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2024.

Game Developer has reached out to Creative Assembly for more information on the cancellation and Sega's wider restructuring efforts.