Prey 2: Bethesda Debunks Arkane Dev Rumours

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Richard Walker

While Prey 2's fate still appears to be up in the air, one thing is for sure. Those rumours of Dishonored developer Arkane being involved in rescuing the troubled project are entirely false, according to Bethesda's Pete Hines talking at QuakeCon on the matter.

“No,” Hines responded when asked about the reports that Arkane had assumed control of Prey 2 from Human Head. “All of that stuff, I have no idea where it came from. The Human Head Prey 2 thing is the Human Head Prey 2 thing. Arkane is over here, and they’re doing their thing, and that’s for them to work on. We’ll be ready to talk about what they’re working on when it gets closer to release.”

Hines has also recently gone on record to say that Prey 2 was "simply not good enough", and for the time being it appears that Human Head has its work cut out in wrangling the alien bounty hunting actioner into something that lives up to Bethesda's exacting standards. It will eventually launch in some shape or form though, Hines assured.

“It just wasn’t where it needed to be,” he stated. “It wasn’t meeting expectations that we had and – in some respects – Human Head had. We’re not just gonna proceed with a plan of putting this thing out until that gets addressed in a way that we feel like will be worth all this time and attention.

“Yes, we could ship it and put it in a box and be done with it, but it won’t meet anybody’s expectations. Not ours, not yours, not the consumer’s. It’d just be like, ‘What happened to this?’ Well, that’s what we would like to know. It’s not fun to make a call to pull back the reins on something like that and say it’s not coming out this year. It’s certainly not an easy decision, especially after you spent years and millions and millions of dollars creating it.”

Apparently the decision to put Prey 2 on hold to ensure that it's up to snuff also has nothing to do with the concept and what it's trying to do, as Hines attempted to explain. “It probably doesn’t help me to define that any further. The reason that it got delayed the way it did is because it was not hitting the quality bar that it was supposed to and needed to. That was ultimately the problem. It had nothing to do with what it was trying to do. It just didn’t hit the quality bar.

"It’s kind of like Wolfenstein, which is getting delayed to next year because it’s showing promise, but it needs more time and polish to hit the quality bar we expect. Prey 2 is not the first time that we’ve moved something because of that. It’s gonna come down to quality.”

Conclusion? Prey 2 is still very much a thing, but when it'll launch and what form it'll re-appear in is totally up for speculation.

[Via RPS]

Comments
27
  • if this game does come out i feel it will be a let down as it has had such a troubled development
  • Sugar and spicy, my ass! @1 Wasn't the first game in dev hell for almost a decade?
  • Aww shit, I fucked up the quote.
  • Come on Bethesda and bring Prey 2. We all been await for this so long time. Prey 2 look lots of promises from trailer and screenshots. I really like Prey 2 idea in screenshots. :)
  • I question if this game will even be successful commercially. Bethesda clearly wants Prey 2 to be finished and released as a well-made game, but just how much have they spent trying to make it work over the course of its development?
  • they might have had a plan on putting it on the next gen consoles and needed to stall. but I still don't like those rumors about trying to take over human head. that is the kind of behavior I would expect out of activision! btw, has anyone noticed that every year activision has some s***** game release built on a map of new York city? either spider man or prototype. lets hope Bethesda does not turn into that.
  • I quite enjoyed Prey when it first came out on PC and have fond memories of it trying to be a bit different than other FPS games. What they showed looked nothing like Prey tbh and would be better if they just called it new IP, unless those drastic changes will make sense to keep it as a sequel...
  • Thing is they've now raised expectations for when it does release due to them saying how they won't release it being sub-par quality. But hopefully they'll make it work,the trailers looked good. Would be nice to see the game on next gen consoles too.
  • I'm so confuzzled.
  • @2 Prey was sort of in development hell (They knew what they wanted to make but the technology wasn't up to it at the time) The problem with games being put on hold/handed to another developer is they can end up terrible just look at Ghost recon future soldier, Aliens colonial marines, Duke nukem
  • This wasn't even really Prey 2. It, supposedly, took place in the Prey Universe, but was not a Sequel. Hell, Tommy wasn't even a Playable Character. Looked more like a Blade Runner Game, to me. (Which I Actually would be VERY Interested in.)
  • Yet they still published Brink...
  • Original Prey, circa 1995-97 http://www.unseen64.net/2008/04/05/prey-beta-1997-version/ 3D Realms... no wonder it was in development hell...
  • These guys talking about polish is kinda funny. Under their publishing, they've released such fine, polished games such as Brink, Hunted, Fallout 3 and NV, TES 4 and 5, and Wet. The only recent games they've published that follow those words are Dishonored and Rage. Hell though, the more work put into making it a masterpiece the better.
  • Arkane better be hard at work on Dishonored 2. As for Prey 2, I guess we will see it when we see it. Though its been so troubled I get the feeling if we never see it, it might not be a bad thing.
  • @13: Nice find. It looked terribad.
  • @14 If you're trying to say that Fallout 3, Oblivion, and Skyrim aren't good games than you are outta your damn mind. OT- I really wish they would just throw us a bone with a little info here and there. At this point I will be happy if Prey 2 comes out this decade.
  • @17 - They are indeed good. They were all also notoriously full of nasty bugs.
  • I hope this game makes its way into my xbox I really enjoyed the first one, except for that multiplayer that was awful.
  • Ever since I saw the announcement trailer I've felt this game was completely out of place for being a Prey sequel. Seemed like it would be more appropriate as a spin-off game in the Mass Effect universe. Why they don't just make this a new ip instead of trying to tie it into the Prey universe is truly mind boggling.
  • @17 I thought they were all fantastic and I even enjoyed brink. I sure as hell would not consider them polished games though.
  • This game might become the next Duke Nukem Forever.. a dev cycle so long it spans entire console generations, being completely scrapped and restarted (at least once that we know of), and if it ever does see the light of day, it will doubtless be a disappointment for it set goals so lofty no game could ever reach them all. It's a shame really, Prey and to a lesser extent Bethesda deserve better.
  • I'm pretty sure 3D Realms is solid, documented proof (beyond simply stating the obvious) that procrastination and shoddy planning does NOT make games.
  • Long as Gearbox doesn't put their hands up to save it
  • I loved Prey, apart from being an easy 1000g, it was a great game to play, and actually very original. A sequel should feature Tommy, and the story should tell us what happened to him after the end of the first game. I don't want the sequel to a sequel in name only. That would just suck.
  • ^ It would also feature you playing as a U.S. Marshal who becomes a alien bounty hunter, Also would've had Tommy in it if you remember those trailers
  • If anything, Bethesda should release Fallout 4. Fallout 3 and NV sold a bunch of copies, and maybe Obsidian will aid in the next Fallout as well. As for Prey 2, the original game was great, like all Bethesda games, but they should add a RPG system similar to Fallout 3. Or, at least not keep us waiting for Fallout 4.
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