Prey 2 is a cancelled first-person shooter video game published by Bethesda
Softworks. It would have been the sequel to the 2006 video game Prey.
Plot The story of Prey 2 was to focus on U.S.
Marshal Killian Samuels, who starts the game on a passenger flight which
suddenly crashes onto the Sphere. At the end of a short battle with some aliens
he is knocked unconscious, after which the plot jumps forward several years.
Samuels is now a bounty hunter on the alien world Exodus. Though he is aware
of his profession and has retained his skills, he has no memory of what
happened in the time that passed since his abduction. He initially believes
himself to be the only human on Exodus until he runs into Domasi "Tommy"
Tawodi, whom he has apparently met in the period he no longer remembers.
Killian then resumes his bounty hunter activities while recovering his memory.
Development The sequel to 2006 game Prey was
officially announced on March 14, 2011 as being developed by Human Head Studios
using heavily modified Id Tech 4 engine. "We are thrilled to be working with
Bethesda on Prey 2", said Chris Rhinehart, project lead. "Prey 2 will
provide gamers the opportunity to explore a new facet of the Prey
universe, one that offers fast-paced action in an open, alien world. We're
excited to show gamers the title we have been working on and hope they will be as
excited by this title as we are." Prey 2 was announced once before;
shortly after the release of Prey, 3D Realms' Scott Miller confirmed that a
sequel named Prey 2 was already in development. On March 17, 2008, Miller's
brand-management group Radar Group was officially launched, along with the
announcement that it is managing Prey 2, and that it slated for the PC,
PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The rights were later transferred from Radar to
Bethesda Softworks. According to Pete Hines, the vice president of PR and
marketing at Bethesda, the current version of the game is what the
developers wanted to make and not what has been announced before by the Radar
Group. On March 23, 2012, Dutch gaming website
PS Focus reported a rumour that Prey 2 has been cancelled by ZeniMax Media.
When asked, Bethesda Softworks reported with no comment regarding the rumour on
their Twitter page. On April 19, 2012, Bethesda stated Prey 2 will not be
cancelled, but instead it will not make its scheduled 2012 release. This was
because "the game's development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year
and the game does not currently meet [their] quality standards.". On August
20, 2012 the game was removed from the products page on Bethesda's website. A
spokesperson from Bethesda informed Eurogamer that until they're ready to
talk about the game more, the focus on the site is on their upcoming titles.
In May 2013 Kotaku reported rumors that development has moved to Arkane Studios
and that the development has been rebooted scrapping all of Human Head
Studios work and with a targeted release of 2016. It has also been reported that
Obsidian Entertainment worked on the game at one point for at least a few
months. In August 2013 Bethesda Softworks' Pete Hines denied rumors that
Arkane Studios was working on the game. However, on August 15, 2013, it was
reported that leaked emails confirmed the game was in fact in development.
On October 30, 2014 during PAX Australia, it was confirmed by Bethesda
Softworks vice president Pete Hines that Prey 2 had subsequently been cancelled.
Pete Hines statement as follows, “It was a game we believed in, but we never felt
that it got to where it needed to be – we never saw a path to success if we
finished it. It wasn’t up to our quality standard, and we decided to cancel it.
It’s no longer in development. That wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s one
that won’t surprise many folks given that we hadn’t been talking about it.
Human Head Studios is no longer working on it. It’s a franchise we still believe
we can do something with — we just need to see what that something is.” Tim
Gerritsen, business development director at Human Head Studios, said, "While we
are disappointed that we won’t be able to deliver our vision of the game, we
remain proud of our work on the franchise, which we feel speaks for
itself, including the award-winning presentation of the game at E3 2011. We
enjoyed working with the many talented people at Bethesda, and we wish them all
the best of luck with any future plans they may have for the franchise."
References External links
Official site