Venom porting Prey to Xbox 360

Last April, following months of rumors, Take-Two Interactive subsidiary 2K Games announced it was resurrecting the long-ago-canceled shooter, Prey. Cooked up by 3D Realms in the late 1990s before being put on indefinite hold, the original Prey followed a Native American warrior trying to fight off an alien invasion. The new version follows a similar plotline, albeit with greatly improved graphics and more complex gameplay.

According to 2K Games' original announcement, Prey was in development "for PCs and a next-generation console system" at Madison, Wisconsin-based Human Head studios. Later, the publisher identified the mystery platform as being the Xbox 360. However, as it made no announcements to the contrary, the public assumed that Human Head was handling both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game.

Apparently, the public assumed wrong. 2K Games reps confirmed to GameSpot that primary work on the Xbox 360 version of Prey is actually being done at its internal studio, Venom Games (Rocky Legends). However, a rep for the publisher shot down reports that the 360 Prey had been taken away from Human Head and given to Venom. "They're not taking it over, it's always been at Venom," said the rep. "We just never formally announced it."

Why the split development duties? "Venom has a lot of console experience, so they've been doing a great job with Prey for some time now," the rep continued. "The 360 version is currently about a week behind PC in development terms. Human Head is very involved in the 360 version and they're overseeing all the 360-specific stuff." Outside of small tweaks like that, the rep said the two versions would be basically identical.

The 2K Games spokesperson also insisted that Prey will ship simultaneously for the PC and Xbox 360. When will that be? "The date is still officially 'when it's done,' and we're currently expecting that to be early June," said the rep.

For a taste of what Prey will have to offer on both platforms, check out GameSpot's hands-on with Prey's gravity-defying deathmatch multiplayer mode.