Publisher Bethesda has confirmed that the protracted and problematic Prey 2 project has now been cancelled.
A representative for Bethesda, Pete Hines, suggested to CNET that it was quality issues, and perhaps issues of direction, the sealed the game's fate.
"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," he said.
"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."
The first-person shooter was first announced in 2011, and thought to be in development at Human Head Studios, which had built the 2008 original.
Then, after a long period of silence since its announcement, the project was said to be "in limbo".
In August 2013, a new report suggested that Bethesda had moved the game to a new development team, known as Arkane Austin. Little more was said about the project thereafter.
Hines added that the Prey franchise may not be dormant forever.
"It's a franchise we still believe we can do something with--we just need to see what that something is," he said.
See below for early art on the now-defunct project.
Discussion
This is a real shame. This was an original, beautiful game that I was truly excited for.
Bethesda should sell the IP and stick to Fallout and TES.
The game was getting into Duke Nukem Forever territory.
Yeah, I'm not gonna shed a tear. This game would have been crappy.
Attention Bethesda. Since you don't want to finish the game, why don't you put the unfinished version online to be downloaded as freeware. I'll take it as is.
ah damnit :( I want more cyberpunk themed games man ...
To all the people whining about Bethesda, read the damn article before making ridiculous comments.
*Sigh*. This looked amazing. Another creative, unique game falls by the wayside while the endless slurry of COD, Battlefield and endless sports games are churned out endlessly.
oh i thought you had to tell the world that something existed first before you can tell them that it has been cancelled
Well, hopefully someone lets Arkane make something before long. That studio is too good to have all their projects suspended in development limbo like this :(
well... at least it gave the world an amazing trailer...
but the gameplay did look a bit crappy.
I knew this day would come, but I was hanging onto hope it would make a surprise return at E3.
Well reading through the comments section I believe a Kickstarter will do it quite good at this point.... the devs are such knuckle headed bastards!! c'mon read the fans enthusiasm do something about it..... seriously the game had pretty good concepts it could be like combination of CoD Advanced warfare in a Mass Effect Like environment....... jeee what a sad thing :(
garbege bethesda at it again
prey 2 was one of the few games i was looking forward too, imagine multiplayer battles in those awesome looking alien cities and what not.
rip prey 2 you beautiful game
Of course it is.
For anyone looking out for Human Head Studios new work, look up Minimum. It's an awesome 3rd-person online multiplayer game on PC. Seriously, look it up, it can be quite fun.
Where is Fallout 4 Bethesda?
If they were trying to redo the game, wouldn't they say it's cancelled? Like how other devs. do, or when things are leaked and they deny it but it turns out to be true?
Arkane was also looking for new employees with FPS and/or RPG experience. Could be Dishonored, but then why not look for people with experience in stealth games? This goes along with the solid-looking rumor that they want to redesign the game as 'System Shock 3,' basically a spiritual successor to System Shock 2.
Maybe since the new concept was so different from the original idea, they wanted to have it as a new IP so as not to anger people?
Since the fist 60 seconds have NOTHING to do with part 1... should have just called it a different name & went with something else. Prey was a GREAT game... you can't start pat 2 like that... come on...
"Quality issues" This is the same excuse EA games gave when they caned Tiberium.
Well if The Evil Within is their standard of quality then thank god they canceled this game.
Thats a damn shame. i really enjoyed the first Prey. It may have had a pointless, stupid multiplayer, but also a superb unique single player game.
Awww that's a pity, I was really lookin' forward to this. Maybe they could give or sell it to an indie dev to keep working on it.
Aw man...well I still have that awesome trailer they put out to remind what could've been :'(
Confirmed cancelled is better than "in Limbo" for me.
This has been vaporware for a while now. Not a shocker. Sad but not a shocker.
Horrible news, bethesda is the worst.
Wow I can't even say that I'm waiting for W.ET 2
Nice error, Gamespot. Prey came out in 2006, not 2008.
Those visuals looked a little too much for PS3/360 and there was no PS4/XONE at that time. Maybe thats why they cancelled it? Hmm...I just don't know but the visuals seem better than Watch Dogs and Destiny thats for sure.
Better to cancel it than release something that would disappoint everyone, given the painful development I doubt we'd have seen a good game at the end, just feel sorry for the devs seeing all their hard work come to nothing.
It went through so much stress that I doubt it would have turned out any good. Kinda like duke nukem.
man, what a downer. i enjoyed the first Prey.
i was really looking forward to this one, since it was suppose to be on an Alien world.
& you were suppose to play a bounty hunter. sure its completely different from the first game but id love to play a new game other than the dozens of same old games that you see on a yearly basis.
Bladerunner looking, Alien world, Bounty hunter, all sounds great to me.
wish they would make an open world game like this.
that isnt Star Wars. love Star Wars but id like to see something different & new
This game looks far gorgeous than dis honored and they canceled it.
I'm sure pray was one of the great games that they didn't want people to play so that they don't demand similar awesomeness in the future.f@(|< ¥ Bethesda
Bethesda talking about "quality" and "high standards", yet those morons can't even bother to patch their bug fests they adorably call "video games".
This game get's canceled but yet we'll still get another COD, Madden and Assassins Creed game every single year...
While it's a shame to see this game get canceled, it shouldn't be a surprise it happened since this game was supposed to come out like 2-3 years ago and nothing happened...
Total frickin bullcrap. I loved the first game and was really hopeful for this game. Thanks. Glad it's never going to happen. UGH.
@Defender1978 Because they can sell it to another company who wants to finish it.
Red Dead Revolver
Ghostbusters
True Crime: Hong Kong (Now Sleeping Dogs)
It happens all the time.
@omnirox The problem is, it sounds like it wasn't going to be amazing. Do you really want another Duke Nukem Forever? Their have been plenty of GOOD unique and creative games that have been released recently. There are more games out there besides COD and Battlefield.
@forbiddenmow u wot m8 ?
ill bash ur head in i swear to me mum.
@DB2538 Not relavent in any way to this.
And besdies, the Bethesda in the article was Bethedsda the publisher, not the devs.
@ChiefFreeman You want a trophy?
That may be because they are PC screenshots. Anyway it's a shame they cancelled the game, it looked pretty cool.
@Seifer24 If it was a great game they would have released it, they are in this business to make money and most every great game will make money.
@Simulator_Shock It was being developed by a different company at that time. Then bethesda picked it up.
@gruoch1 @omnirox Well it's certainly nothing like Duke Nukem Forever. It looked brilliant, and between the loss of this and Star Wars 1313 we've missed out on what could have been some amazing sci-fi games.
@gruoch1 @omnirox Duke Nukem Forever is one of my favorite games.
@aymendj @forbiddenmow I'm sure you won't stop at swearing to her.
@SingletreeAve @aymendj @forbiddenmow i wont m8