Sega cancels Hyenas from Total War developer Creative Assembly

Sega shocked the world by canceling its upcoming game, “The Last of Us”. HyenasCreative Assembly, the developer of Total War’s extraction shooter was believed to be nearing completion.

Hyenas challenged teams of players with stealing “priceless” pop-culture knick-knacks like Sonic the Hedgehog figurines from rich Mars colonists in a dystopian future. In August the game was demoed for press and public on Gamescom, but a closed Beta test had just ended in September.

Sega announced the cancellation of the event in a statement. It blamed it on the recession in Europe, and the lower profitability for its European operations. The company said it would “implement reduction of various fixed expenses” (corporate-speak for layoffs) at Creative Assembly, which is based in the U.K., and other European subsidiaries.

There is a fear that the job cuts will be severe. IGN says that Creative Assembly’s staff was only informed about the cancellation by IGN. Hyenas on Thursday morning, simultaneously with Sega’s announcement, and that they are pessimistic about the outlook.

“A source close to Creative Assembly told IGN the entire Hyenas studio now faces redundancy, but staff expect massive cuts across the company,” IGN reported. “The cancellation of Hyenas so close to release came as a surprise to staff, IGN was told, although internally there was concern that the game would fail to do well.”

Sega has expressed its concerns regarding the Gamescom event before. Hyenas. In August, the company told investors the game was a “challenging title,” that Sega was “striving to improve its quality,” and that it was making “final adjustments to its business model” — which many understood to mean a shift to free-to-play, something Creative Assembly had initially ruled out.

Hyenas isn’t the only game in development affected by Sega’s “structural reforms.” The company, which said it expects to make a loss in its current fiscal year, is also canceling some other, unannounced titles in development in Europe. “We will continue to consider measures to improve profitability in European bases apart from above,” Sega said, ominously. Sega also owns other European studios, including Space is Endless Two Point Studios is the management game expert, followed by Amplitude developer, Sports Interactive, who develops Football Manager.