Just last week, Sega pronounced Hyenas dead in the water before it even launched. Now, thanks to an investigative video from YouTuber Volound, we’ve got some insight on why exactly Hyenas was canceled and how much its production cost.

First things first, you can watch the video in question here:

Volound managed to get a bunch of behind-the-scenes information on the game directly from an anonymous developer who he confirmed had worked on the game. Sega originally cited low profitability in Europe as the central reason for leaving Hyenas on the chopping block, but the developer believed the game failed for a different reason:

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.

This lack of direction apparently took hold of the project pretty early on. Initially, the team wanted to make a game with “a gritty sci-fi setting with a touch of NASA.” The game was also going to lean towards more punishing gameplay and model itself after games like Escape From Tarkov. This direction was quickly abandoned because it seemed “too hardcore for a wide audience.” Shortly after, the team tried to make the characters appear more lighthearted, and it apparently did not go well:

We were updated on the shape of the game, and rather than “lovable rogues” they were going with “gleeful audacity….” The characters looked hilariously bad, unmemorable, unrecognisable, and they even tried to play with some “gleeful audacity” by making a few test animations of the characters flipping off a security camera or swaggering down a corridor like an idiot. This was a period where it felt like we just had no idea where we were going with the tone, or what needed to be done.”

Film Director Neil Blomkamp was even involved in the project at one point. Blomkamp was reportedly a huge fan of Alien: Isolation, another game by the team at Creative Assembly. When he stopped by the studio one day to check out their next project, he got attached to Hyenas and fed the team a bunch of ideas. Another anonymous developer stated that the game was “Sega’s most heavily funded title as it was backed by some big names in the company” partly due to Blomkamp’s involvement.

Unfortunately, Blomkamp’s ideas were much better on paper than in practice. By the time the team changed direction again and settled on “Payday in space,” the project was already in flames. One developer had this to say regarding what those involved thought of the project:

All internal feedback pointed to it being a bad game, a poor experience, and something ultimately that will melt into the background of an already saturated multiplayer shooter market.

When it looked like the game wasn’t going to be good on release, [Executive Producer] David Nicholson even talked about “doing a Rainbow 6 Siege,” like it was almost the plan to release a bad game and fix it after the fact. Oh, and it was originally going to be a paid for game, but indeed by the time it was canceled they already planned to release it as free to play – with microtransactions.

So, what sort of hole did this project leave in Sega’s pocket? The exact number is unclear, but the devs are certain that it was Sega’s most expensive mistake:

…I forgot to mention that Hyenas was Sega’s biggest budget game ever, but obviously you heard that already. Towards the end there were people from Sega Japan more or less permanently at the UK office, this has NEVER happened the whole time I’ve worked at CA, they occasionally came to visit and check how a game was looking but as I said previously, generally hands-off.

The most unfortunate casualties of Hyenas’ failure are those who lost their job due to Sega’s cuts. We’ve seen a big trend of job cuts in the gaming industry lately, from fan-favorite studios like Volition to massive companies like Epic Games. It always sucks to see people get laid off. Hopefully, the trend ends soon.

May Hyenas rest in peace. If you watch the video for yourself, leave us a comment about what you think.