Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC, and Yumeiro Yuram for PlayStation 4 and Switch are the highlights of this week’s Japanese video game releases.
Cancelled Hyenas was ‘Sega’s biggest budget game ever’, it’s claimed
04.10.2023 - 12:55 / videogameschronicle.com
New alleged details on the development of Sega and Creative Assembly’s cancelled live service shooter Hyenas have been published, including claims that it was Sega’s biggest budget game ever before the company pulled the plug.
The Japanese publisher announced last week that it was cancelling the multiplayer shooter “and some unannounced titles under development” in Europe, following at least six years of development on the project.
Developer Creative Assembly has suggested the game was cancelled due to “ambitious” plans and high competition in the multiplayer shooter space.
However, a new video published by Total War YouTuber Volound – corroborated by VGC’s own sources – features claims from anonymous developers that a lack of direction, disruptive engine change, and overly-cautious design contributed to its downfall.
VGC has asked Sega for comment on this story.
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One anonymous developer wrote: “So what went wrong? Total lack of direction, many of the leadership asleep at the wheel but they never seem to lose their jobs. An engine change, part way through the process. Attempting to break into a saturated market, and not committing to do anything adventurous with the game.”
Hyenas, or ‘Project Keaton’ as it was known then, was greenlit after the critical success, but commercial disappointment, of Alien Isolation, following which the Creative Assembly ‘console team’ delivered the work-for-hire project Halo Wars 2, which is also claimed to have sold modestly.
CA’s management wanted to create a console game with broader commercial potential, with Destiny, Escape from Tarkov and PUBG cited as inspiration.
The game was a PvPvE (Player vs Player vs Environment) shooter with support for up to fifteen players in teams of three. The goal of players was to break into vaults spread across the map, battling AI enemies as well as other player teams, looting merch and escaping the ship alive.
“In the early days, Hyenas aimed for a ‘lovable rogues’ vibe, surviving in a messed-up world controlled by the elite, channelling Han Solo with a bit of Firefly for good measure,” one anonymous developer told Volound. “It sounded intriguing, but the details were vague. Earth was in ruins, the rich had everything, steal to survive, a gritty sci-fi setting with a touch of NASA.”
The game was originally planned to use the Alien: Isolation engine, but due to frustration with its tools, it was decided that the game would switch to Unreal Engine, which required a portion of the team to be temporarily moved to work on Total War.
In 2019, before Hyenas had been announced, Creative Assembly’s Twitter account posted a photo of Hollywood director Neill
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