Fancy a laugh? Hyenas is getting a closed beta at the end of August

Sega’s upcoming wacky merch-stealing extraction shooter Hyenas is getting a closed beta test on PC at the end of the month.

Earlier this week, Sega showed off a gameplay trailer where it announced that a closed beta for the game is kicking off August 31, just under two weeks away. It’s simple enough to sign-up to take part, all you need to do is head to the game’s Steam page, and click on the button that says “request access” to the playtest. Considering it’s being described as a closed beta, don’t expect a guaranteed invite, but this is the best way to go about playing the game ahead of whenever it releases.

If you haven’t heard of Hyenas yet, it’s self described as a “hero-based, multiplayer extraction shooter. Choose a Hyena to play as – each with a unique weapon, ability, and personality – to form a crew of three and steal valuable Merch. The action takes place on vast, themed ‘Plunderships’ returning to Mars from Earth, loaded with salvaged Merch for your crew to steal.”

The shooter was announced last June, and is the latest title from Alien: Isolation developer Creative Assembly. It’s been in development since 2018, though we haven’t seen all that much of it just yet. Looking at the trailers for it, though, it’s obviously a bit more of a sillier take on the extraction shooter genre. After all, what other games let you kill someone just to steal a statue of Sonic the Hedgehog?

Things don’t sound entirely smooth for Hyenas at the moment though, as in a recent Q&A session, Sega executives were asked about the game’s business model. The company wasn’t able to answer this, however, describing the game as “a challenging title,” and that Sega is currently “making final adjustments to its business model.”

Hyenas is currently due to be released this year, and when it does launch it will be available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.