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Development of Prey 2 has shifted from Human Head Studios to Arkane Austin, according to a new report.
Kotaku claims that the troubled title is set to be “rebooted” by the Dishonored developer after Bethesda ‘shopped’ the game around multiple studios, including Obsidian and Rebellion.
Arkane is rumoured to be “scrapping all the work that Human Head has done and starting from scratch”, with the title said to be targeting a late 2016 release.
Rumours of Prey 2’s cancellation began circulating last year after Human Head was asked to cancel presentations linked to the title. Bethesda later said that the game hadn’t been cancelled but that it wouldn’t hit its original 2012 release date.
Three months later the game was removed from Bethesda’s website and, six months after that, Human Head began staffing up for a mystery open world title.
There was clearly more to the story than was being let on.
But Kotaku reports that Human Head was removed from the project in late 2011, tying in with a previous rumour suggesting the developer deliberately stopped working on the title over contract issues, with Bethesda approaching both Obsidian and Rebellion before settling on Arkane.
The site says that Rebellion “turned down” the opportunity to develop the title, and there are “at least some of the folks at Arkane [who] don’t want to make the game”.
“Some people at Arkane Austin are upset about this decision,” Kotaku’s ‘tipster’ says, “but higher-ups at the company are telling the team to forget that it’s called Prey 2 and just treat it like a new System Shock-the first-person PC series that inspired games like Bioshock and Arkane’s last project, Dishonored.”
VideoGamer.com has contacted Bethesda for comment.
