Hyenas is a “challenging” title, Sega has admitted. In a just-released transcript of a financial briefing held on August 1, Sega responded to a question asking for an update on Hyenas, the hero-based multiplayer shooter from Creative Assembly’s Alien Isolation team.
“We are unable to talk about this title because the details have not yet been announced at this time,” Sega said. “As this is a challenging title, we are striving to improve its quality towards the release on the front line of development. We are also making final adjustments to its business model in parallel.”
Hyenas, announced last summer, resurfaced on August 16 with a new gameplay trailer, below, showing chaotic, zero-G heist action. Hyenas is described as a hero-based multiplayer extraction shooter that pits five teams of three against each other and NPC security teams known as MURFS. The idea is to steal pop culture memorabilia from Plunderships. A closed beta for PC players is set for August 31 to September 11.
While Creative Assembly had previously indicated Hyenas is not free-to-play, Sega’s mention of “final adjustments” to the business model suggests this may have changed. Sega issued IGN the following statement:
"We have dedicated the past year to reviewing our business model alongside months of extremely valuable player testing of the gameplay experience. We're very excited with this progress and the reaction to yesterday's gameplay reveal. We'll build on foundation with our Closed Beta test beginning 31 August and use this insight to finalize our plans for launch."
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
