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.
As part of a presentation to investors (via Eurogamer), CA's owner Sega attributed the studio's ill-fated push into live service to "the favorable winds of the early Covid-19 period, coupled with the strong performance of each title," which led Sega down a path of "accelerating more, even in areas where those studios have not tried yet for further growth." In other words, Sega decided to push the boat out, only to realise no one on board knew how to sail.
