Creative Assembly has addressed the disgruntled Total War community, apologising for what has admitted were a series of missteps this year with the release of Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC and the struggling Total War: Pharaoh.
Creative Assembly to Refocus on RTS, After Sega Report Pins Hyenas Cancellation on Studio Mismatch
29.11.2023 - 22:11 / mmorpg.com
Sega has a new financial report that, like so many companies in the industry, discusses layoffs and project cancellations. Creative Assembly, as noted in the report, saw in-development FPS Hyenas canceled in large part over concerns that the team wasn’t up to running a live service FPS long-term.
“To put it simply,” the report says, “Creative Assembly was good at offline games in the RTS genre, but they took on the challenge of developing HYENAS, an online game in the FPS genre.
However, 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.”
These changes are also resulting in cutbacks at Creative Assembly, including layoffs “currently underway”, and to be confirmed later, along with additional cost-cutting.
The reveals were made amid changes for a number of Sega-owned studios, with an emphasis on getting every studio to work on what they’re good at. “However, some studios did well and some did not, so we have decided to focus again on strength of each studio.”
Creative Assembly has a long track record of successful RTS development, with theTotal War franchise a highlight. So, Creative Assembly will work on RTS games. Like Frontier Developments, which just announce, also via financial update, that it will be refocusing on the genre that brought them success, this reflects a trend towards somewhat safer development choices for the near-future. This isn’t to say that risk-taking is dead, exactly, but we’ve yet to come to the end of these cutbacks as studios sort out their 2023-24 budget priorities and employee rosters.
The website gametalkz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Authors
Popular Topics
rockpapershotgun.com
15.12.2023 / 12:15
Creative Assembly apologise for "mistakes" with Total Warhammer 3 and Pharaoh, offering part-refunds and free DLC
I haven’t been keeping up with player reaction to the latest Twar and Twarhammer games, but it seems players are none too pleased with Creative Assembly right now. In a rather dramatic open letter, the company's vice president Roger Collum has acknowledged that Total War: Warhammer 3’s Shadows of Change add-on and the recent historical strategy outing Total War: Pharaoh did not ship in a desirable state, with complaints ranging from wobbly execution to overpricing. The studio will try to make things right by offering partial refunds to Pharaoh owners and giving away DLC on top of the usual updates.
eurogamer.net
15.12.2023 / 11:37
Creative Assembly apologises for "missteps" with Total War series, offers Pharaoh refunds
Creative Assembly has apologised for «missteps» it made with the Total War series and is offering partial refunds of Total War: Pharaoh on Steam.
pcgamer.com
15.12.2023 / 00:15
Creative Assembly apologizes for 'missteps' and says Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC will become better value and players will receive partial refunds for Total War: Pharaoh
The Total War: Warhammer series has a tradition of excellent DLC, whether it adds new armies like Curse of the Vampire Coast, expands existing ones like The Warden & The Paunch, or offers an entirely new campaign mode like the free Mortal Empires and Immortal Empires add-ons. The recent Shadows of Change DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3 was not so well-received, however, being sold for the same price as one of the full army-adding expansions while offering value closer to that of a faction-expanding one.
gamingbolt.com
14.12.2023 / 14:26
God of War Ragnarok’s Story isn’t Done Even After Valhalla, Developer Teases
God of Ragnarok: Valhalla has launched, mere days after its surprise announcement at The Game Awards, bringing a free, story-driven roguelite mode to the acclaimed action-adventure title that serves as an epilogue to the base game’s story. Interestingly enough, however, it seems the game’s story still might not be done.
pushsquare.com
06.12.2023 / 23:04
Creative Assembly to Refocus on Strategy Games Following Hyenas Debacle | Push Square
UK developer Creative Assembly, after a brief dalliance with first-person projects on PlayStation like 2014's Alien: Isolation and the recently cancelled Hyenas, will shift focus back to strategy games and PC. It's likely the last console players will see of the Horsham-based company, at least for the foreseeable future.
gamedeveloper.com
06.12.2023 / 22:39
Report: Bungie at risk of full Sony takeover
The tumultuous saga at Bungie continues, with a new report from IGN claiming the studio may be completely taken over by Sony depending on the performance of June 2024's Destiny 2: The Final Shape.
eurogamer.net
01.12.2023 / 14:01
Sonic Dream Team puts players in "exhilarating flow state", says studio head
Sonic Dream Team, the forthcoming mobile game, will put players in an «exhilarating flow state», according to Sega Hardlight studio creative director Dan Rossati.
pcgamer.com
30.11.2023 / 12:56
Sega admits Creative Assembly's live service push happened because it was drunk on 'the favorable winds of the early Covid-19 period,' says the studio will focus on RTS games from now on
The devs at Creative Assembly have had a rough time of it recently. Back in September, the studio was blindsided by the sudden cancellation of its upcoming live-service shooter Hyenas, barely two weeks after it had concluded an open beta and one month after an appearance at Gamescom. The result was layoffs, uncertainty, and now the studio is going to attempt to pivot back to what it knows best: real-time strategy.
pcgamesinsider.biz
30.11.2023 / 11:05
Creative Assembly to focus on RTS titles after Hyenas cancellation
UK developer Creative Assembly is going to be returning to its roots and focusing on real-time strategy titles.
gamespot.com
29.11.2023 / 21:16
Total War Dev Creative Assembly Is Returning To Real-Time Strategy Games
Following the cancellation of Hyenas, the studio goes back to its main genre.
rockpapershotgun.com
29.11.2023 / 18:45
Total War devs Creative Assembly to refocus on “offline RTS games” after ditching online shooter Hyenas
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.