Following its initial reveal, Hyenas received a positive reception from those participating in a recent closed beta. The team behind Alien: Isolation, developed by UK studio Creative Assembly, planned to release the co-op shooter title in 2023.
Published by Sega, many were looking forward to the final build of the game launching during the final quarter of the year.
Following reports of a challenging development process and a review of its business, Sega announced it has scrapped plans to release Hyenas altogether, much to the surprise of those who had a chance to play the game at Gamescom earlier in 2023.
Why did Sega cancel Hyenas?
On September 28, 2023, Sega published a press release citing structural reforms across its European operations as the decision behind the cancellation, in addition to recording a potential loss of 14.3 billion yen (£78.54 million) for the current fiscal year.
Shortly after, Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki confirmed Hyenas had been scrapped.
The post reads: "Due to the deterioration in profitability in the European region, we will review the title portfolio developed and each European site and discontinue Hyenas."
Amid rumours of Hyenas becoming a free-to-play title, Eurogamer reported Sega had branded the game a "challenging title" to develop while the publisher was making adjustments to its existing business model.
Hyenas first appeared in June 2022 as a co-op extraction shooter title that was set to launch on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
In addition to the cancellation of Hyenas, Sega also revealed it had scrapped other "unannounced titles under development." In August 2023, the publisher completed its acquisition of Rovio, the developer of the hugely popular mobile game Angry Birds.
Despite the adjustments made to development, Hyenas won't be entering a competitive shooter market. With other unannounced titles also canned, we'll have to see what Sega has up its sleeve over the next 12 months.
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