Prey 2 officially canceled, says Bethesda vice president
Bethesda confirms the world's worst-kept secret, officially acknowledging that Prey 2 has been canceled.
Update: An anonymous Human Head staffer has sent this statement in to Shacknews. "We can confirm that Human Head Studios has not been involved with Prey 2 for some time. 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."
It's been the world's worst kept secret, but Bethesda has come out and confirmed it anyway. During this weekend's PAX Australia event, the publisher has confirmed that Prey 2, the long-troubled project with Human Head Studios at its helm, has officially been canceled.
"[Prey 2] wasn't up to our quality standard and we decided to cancel it," Bethesda vice president Pete Hines told CNET. "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."
Prey 2 started out promising, with a closed-door E3 demo that dazzled anybody that saw it. However, the troubles piled up from there, from a lengthy delay to an anonymous report that Human Head had stopped working on the game in 2012, due to a contract dispute. Jason Blair, Prey 2's former narrative designer, stated a year later that Prey 2 was, in fact, a finished product that he says was a victim of politics.
Hines added that Human Head Studios was no longer working with Bethesda, though he still believed the Prey franchise could one day re-surface. As for Human Head Studios, they've since moved on to release Minimum, in conjunction with publisher Atari.
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replyOzzie Mejia posted a new article, Prey 2 officially canceled, says Bethesda vice president
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The Sphere in Prey was a Harvest Sphere. In the original Prey 2, it was going to be revealed the Keepers were building a War Sphere to destroy Earth. Halfway through the game its massive presence is revealed hovering right over the alien city. You spent the last part of the game fighting your way through that Sphere with Tommy. That was one of the big twists and surprises. At this point though, it's fairly clear no one's ever going to play that version
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Watching it again, it kinda reminds me of like, Guardians of the Galaxy.
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Wait, that's news?
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Good, maybe that frees up some people FOR GOD DAMNED FALLOUT 4!!!!!
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Fallout 4 is a Bethesda-developed game, so this doesn't really have any bearing on that.
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That opens up the question of what Arkane Austin is doing that seemingly outranks Prey 2, a project that landed on their plate when Bethesda ripped it away from Human Head.
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Dishonored did pretty well, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were working on a sequel.
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It's a given that they're working on a new Dishonored. Bethesda was essentially going "WOO! NEW FRANCHISE! SERIES, BABY!" in their press releases once the sales figures started coming in.
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Dishonored 2, obviously.
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And yes, this is the "press sneak fucks" thing: http://kotaku.com/leaked-e-mails-suggest-bethesda-misled-gamers-about-pre-1149092622
When we originally found out about this news and contacted people at both Bethesda and Arkane for comment, Colantonio e-mailed his team to ask them not to talk to reporters. And on May 31, when we reported what we had heard, Colantonio sent out this e-mail: "Now that the news is out, we'll be contacted left and right by press sneak fucks who will want to know more. Please don't answer to any of their requests."
August 2013, RPS's Nathan Grayson: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/14/arkane-on-the-future-of-dishonored-stories-multiplayer/
RPS: So you guys and Prey 2? Definitely not happening? I already asked Pete Hines, but just to be absolutely sure.
Colantonio: No. We’ve been looking at where that rumor came from, and I really don’t know.
No remorse whatsoever for doing the publisher equivalent of leaving a developer (Human Head) for dead. If you remember the IGN article by Mitch Dyer ( http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/05/what-went-wrong-with-human-heads-prey-2 ), Bethesda wanted to "play hardball and buy the studio", which apparently didn't happen, because then, "Bethesda denied further funding of the project, and started failing milestones."
The horse is already waaaaay out of the barn, but I doubt that any sizeable independent studio would even consider working with ZeniMax, unless they're seeking to get acquired. And is there much reason to get acquired anymore? Id Tech 5 still looks like a massive mess; every game that uses it (that would be Rage, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and The Evil Within) has been a gigantic install.
Also, The Evil Within was apparently badly broken prior to its day-one patch:
http://www.vg247.com/2014/10/22/the-evil-within-was-borderline-unplayable-before-the-day-one-patch/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-the-prepatch-evil-within-we-hope-you-will-never-play
http://kotaku.com/see-what-a-differece-a-day-one-patch-makes-1649069692
So, at this point, will anyone ever trust anything that Pete Hines says? Should anyone trust him? Haven't we already sat through enough blatant lies, from Wet to Brink to Rage to Prey 2 to The Evil Within? He's #1 on my "Least Trustworthy Video Game PR Reps" list. -
The trailer looked really good at the time, even though it had little in common with the original.
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Assuming it's the same thing they showed at PAX, it looked quite playable, if not complete. Given the rumors out there that it was basically done, just not released because some tool at Bethesda wanted to play hardball, that makes this all the more tragic.
Not that Prey was a particularly favorite game of mine, mind you. I found the first one kind of repetitive and dull from a gameplay standpoint, though great in terms of ambiance. The second though looked to be much better on the gameplay front. Sad that it's never going to see the light of day.
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Really? The only game I was really excited to play. I played the old Prey and loved it. Why do Bethesda give us sugar with a video like the one they did and now announce they are going to stop the development? Really sad about it.It should be great play the Prey environment with a new design and modern video technology.
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