Hyenas developers share frustration at how Sega’s biggest budget “metaphorical turd” was mishandled

A number of developers behind the now-cancelled Hyenas have commented on the project’s failure, and shared some of their frustrations towards management at both Creative Assembly and Sega.

Last week, YouTuber Volound issued a well-sourced report on Hyenas’ downfall, including the detail that it had been Sega’s “biggest budget game ever”. That report stated Hyenas had been plagued with a lack of direction before it was ultimately canned.

Now, a further video by Volound has shared further quotes on Hyenas from anonymous sources who worked on its development. “I’m paralysed with a mixture of upset and anger over what’s happening to my friends there,” one person said.

“I feel that because [Creative Assembly] had that corporate backing, it was very much a case of ignore the bad feedback and push towards polishing this metaphorical turd into what the publisher has invested in producing,” another source said. Sources said Creative Assembly bought two buildings to house Hyenas developers, such was the project’s ambition.

“So much money was thrown at this project that ultimately Sega must have thought it was going to be more beneficial to not have the negative press of another failed release versus trying to consolidate their financial loss,” the source said, adding that this was “something which Creative Assembly is now fronting the bill for”.

A redundancy consultation process begun the morning that Hyenas’ cancellation was announced, with layoffs expected.

Another source described a stagnant work environment and office culture with senior employees being shuffled between different positions, “and then management feels like that’s dealing with the problem”.

This latest report also covers film director’s Neil Blomkamp’s “mood video”, which was discussed in Volound’s first video and has now leaked online. The mood video was created by Blomkamp following a visit to the studio in 2019, and it contains scenes from several films and video games including Fallout 3. One source described the video as “a real shot in the arm to have some DIRECTION”.