Total War devs Creative Assembly to refocus on “offline RTS games” after ditching online shooter Hyenas

rockpapershotgun.com:

Troubled developers Creative Assembly will double-down on their strength in making offline real-time strategy games, following their failed attempt to break into the competitive shooter market with extraction FPS Hyenas.

That’s the news from CA owners Sega, who expanded on their decision to suddenly cancel Hyenas in September after years in development - and just days after the upcoming shooter’s latest closed beta on PC received a fairly warm reception. The decision also led to a number of layoffs at the UK studio.

“Although the game itself was good, we decided to cancel the development of Hyenas because we did not think it would reach a quality that would satisfy our users when we considered whether we could really operate this as a competitive online game for a long period of time,” said Sega president and CEO Haruki Satomi during the company’s latest results presentation.

Satomi added that Creative Assembly were currently undergoing consultation regarding job losses in an effort to improve lost profitability caused by sudden business changes affecting Sega, including “sluggish sales and increased costs” caused by inflation and rising wages among other factors. Along with the risk of layoffs, Satomi said that additional unannounced titles had been cancelled alongside Hyenas, which was reportedly its most expensive game to date.

As part of wider “structural reform” planned for its consumer entertainment division, Sega said that their studios would look to refocus on what they were best at in a notable step back from the more ambitious approach taken during the pandemic.

“Each studio has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the favorable winds of the early COVID-19 period, coupled with the strong performance