Prey 2 Was "A Full Game" When Bethesda Cancelled it

[Steven Bogos]

Prey 2 Was "A Full Game" When Bethesda Cancelled it

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/jasonlblair/status/340655497860489216]
"What happened to Prey 2, from where I sat, was political. And petty," says ex-Human Head narrative designer and writer.

Jason Blair, an ex-Human Head employee, recently spoke out on his Prey 2 [https://twitter.com/jasonlblair] and given the project to Dishonored developers Arkane to complete. "This Prey 2/Arkane rumor is giving new life to a lot of old lies," the writer said, "I'm been quiet about this whole business but can't stay so anymore."

Blair was the narrative designer and writer on the Prey 2 project for the last six months of its development, and he claims that the game was much more than "just a demo." "Prey 2 was a full game. And a crazy fun one," he said, adding "What happened to Prey 2, from where I sat, was political. And petty."

But while Blair "mourns that Prey 2 won't belong to Human Head," he is willing to admit talent in Arkane. "As for Arkane, I've enjoyed what I played of Dishonored. They have the chops. If the rumor is true, they'll likely do well with Prey 2."

Prey 2 was to be the sequel to 2006's Prey, which was also developed by Human Head but published under the now defunct 3D Realms. Human Head set to work on an ambitious sequel, which would have the main character travel to the homeworld of Prey's alien race and become a sort of bounty hunter. Unfortunately, they soon butted heads with new publisher Bethesda, which ended with the project being trapped in limbo [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120128-Prey-2-Is-Trapped-In-Limbo].

Neither Bethesda, Arkane nor Human Head have offered an official comment on the rumors surrounding Prey 2's development.

Source: PC Games N [https://twitter.com/jasonlblair]

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[ShotgunZombie]

Pity. I loved the first Prey and was intrigued by the gameplay demos I saw of the second one. No disrespect to Arkane, if they are even involved at all, but I want to play Human Head's Prey 2 not yours.

 

[Erttheking]

I don't even know what Prey is even about, so I'm rather apathetic.

 

[Denamic]

A game scrapped in its final stages of development? Surely, no publisher would ever do something that cruel. Except maybe every major publisher.

I wish developers would all be their own publishers. The current common business model puts the developers too much in the mercy of merciless businessmen. A game should sink or swim on its own merits, not be murdered in its crib by people who had nothing to do with its creation.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

I don't even know what Prey is even about, so I'm rather apathetic.

I would just like to play the game for once. It used to be on Steam, but they ran out of keys, and never took care of the issue. Eventually it got removed.

IMO Human Head's client relations management is just atrocious and needs to be shown the door at this point. First they not just run out of keys for Prey, they also seem to completely forget about it (thus the game gets pulled from Steam), and now they get in a fight with Bethesda that apparently has landed Prey 2 in Arkane's lap instead.

captcha: magic eight ball

Y'know, that's a good guess on what makes these atrocious decisions, captcha!

 

[FoolKiller]

I wasn't interested in the second one... its seemed like more generic space marine ideas rather than the cool story the first one was. Hope Arkane do well with it.

 

[1337mokro]

I wasn't interested in the second one... its seemed like more generic space marine ideas rather than the cool story the first one was. Hope Arkane do well with it.

Yes the second game which was an hub based bounty hunter western set in space.... was looking like a generic space marine idea.

At least the game is being worked on or maybe not. There's really nothing conclusive here. I'd rather Bethesda just cut the crap and give a conclusive statement than make this game die a slow PR death.

 

[Denamic]

I wasn't interested in the second one... its seemed like more generic space marine ideas rather than the cool story the first one was. Hope Arkane do well with it.

Yes the second game which was an hub based bounty hunter western set in space.... was looking like a generic space marine idea.

No, no. A hub based bounty hunter western in space, with portals, twisted gravity, and a protagonist with spirit powers. There must be hundreds of games like that.

 

[oldtaku]

I find it hard to believe Bethesda would cancel a game that was /really/ all done and ready to ship. Given how long it had already been in development, I suspect they figured it was going to take the same amount of time to actually polish it and add enough content, and they just weren't ready to fund it for that long again. Cut your sunk costs.

 

[Holythirteen]

"I'm been quiet about this whole business but can't stay so anymore."

Then say something? Is this news? If you can say "it was political and petty" can't you say any more?

Maybe I expect too much...

 

[piinyouri]

Sad. I wasn't aware it had been officially cancelled. : C

The first game is a rough cut gem. It has it's share of issues, like having no real difficulty or penalty for dying, looking a tad dated (never bothered me) and so on, but it was fairly unique and surprisingly fun.

The first sequence in the bar where you get abducted is done very well. I was really into it from that point on.

 

[oliver.begg]

I find it hard to believe Bethesda would cancel a game that was /really/ all done and ready to ship. Given how long it had already been in development, I suspect they figured it was going to take the same amount of time to actually polish it and add enough content, and they just weren't ready to fund it for that long again. Cut your sunk costs.

it reminds me of the battle front 3 thing. that gameplay seems like a full game but when you actually think about it all the little things like voices, balancing and QA don't look to have been done.

those process could take 6 more months and thats money that has to be spent. if they thought it wasn't going to make it back better to cut it lose now then throw more money away for some kind of fallacy

 

[Signa]

IMO Human Head's client relations management is just atrocious and needs to be shown the door at this point. First they not just run out of keys for Prey, they also seem to completely forget about it (thus the game gets pulled from Steam), and now they get in a fight with Bethesda that apparently has landed Prey 2 in Arkane's lap instead.

Are you sure it's Human Head's fault there? I was under the distinct impression that it was 3DRealms' closure that ended the sale on Steam. I know they coincided pretty close together, and usually publishers control distribution, not devs.

OT: This news saddens me greatly. I ran through the original like it was an average run-of-the-mill shooter with a few new, interesting mechanics, but as time has gone on, I have nothing but respect for it. It was one of the last good shooters made that doesn't cater to the 2 weapon limits and autosaving junkies.

 

[Irridium]

This makes me very sad. You know how games never live up to their CGI trailers? Well, Prey 2's did.

Such a god damn shame.

 

[Viper114]

Such a shame that this happened with Human Head, wish they could have just got it out earlier. But hopefully Arkane can do something with it, and I hope they keep Prey 2 the same way it was previously, an open-world shooter.

 

[Sol_HSA]

I don't even know what Prey is even about, so I'm rather apathetic.

It's a confusing story about a completely unlikeable main character who happens to be a Navaho indian. The storyline forces you to do plenty of choices that make no sense whatsoever, the main character who you're playing is whining all the time, and whenever something interesting is happening, he just whines about it to get it over with faster. (I suppose there's something to be said about silent protagonists, after all..)

The portal/spirit form mechanic was pretty fun though.

There's plenty of things put in the game for "shock value" that didn't work for me at all, nor did they make any sense in the storyline either.

And when the game finally seems to have some rules put in place, it tends to break them -

Spoiler

aliens invading the spirit realm? Really?

 

[jollybarracuda]

I find it hard to believe Bethesda would cancel a game that was /really/ all done and ready to ship. Given how long it had already been in development, I suspect they figured it was going to take the same amount of time to actually polish it and add enough content, and they just weren't ready to fund it for that long again. Cut your sunk costs.

Yah, that. As a writer, I'm sure his part in the project was rather large, but is he really the best person to clarify if the game is complete or not? When the rundown of what still needs to be completed is sent to Bethesda, including bug-fixes, testing, advertisement, and all the other post-development processes that need to be completed, and then when you consider that this is still just a sequel to a game that came out years ago, which was received to good, but not excellent reception, can you really blame Bethesda for wanting to rethink how this game should be done, and under who's development?

I just think too often we side with the developers without really thinking of what this meant for the publisher. They can't just blindly throw money at projects.

 

[yayforgiveaway]

In industry that gave us dnf and acm to name a few you think that they would scrap something that is almost finished? You stupid f... erm... naive innocents.