There are some worrying rumours concerning Arkane Austin rebooting Prey 2. It seems they're being forced to scrap Human Head's nearly complete work and rebuild the entire game scratch.

Over the past year Bethesda shopped Prey 2 around to Rebellion, and Obsidian. The former wasn't happy with the insulting money Bethesda was offering, and the former, known for their world building which seems a little at odds for the mechanics heavy Prey 2, failed. Now Bethesda's trying to shoehorn Prey 2's ambitious open-world (something Human Head's ID Tech 4 can already do) into Dishonored's Unreal Engine 3 derivative from scratch. Bethesda Softworks plan to throw away Human Head's work and start the game over.

Take off the developer who created the universe and more importantly the games and give it to teams who aren't up to the task.

"Prey 2 has shown great promise and we regret disappointing our fans. We have made a substantial investment in game development to deliver the experience fans want. We are determined only to release the AAA game that fans rightfully expect, and are unwilling to compromise our quality standards to meet a release schedule."

What a joke! Nothing would disappoint me more than Bethesda kicking off the creators of Prey 2 off the project, and giving it to another studio over some petty contractual issue. By substantial investment, you mean start the game over from scratch instead of supporting the original development team, right? It certainly explains why you've been so cagey about Prey 2.

If this is really the case then I hope that idTech4 is retained as Unreal engine 3 is quite worse in terms of quality.

I'm willing to accept whatever fate Prey 2 faces; even if it is to be recreated by another developer.

On the contrary, no one, and I mean no one, will ever be able to produce the quality that Human Head has shown us with their current build of Prey 2.

Hopefully we will get to play the Beast Human Head created those oh so many years ago...

That would be like looking forward to a Stanley Kubrick film, only to have him kicked off the project by Warner Brothers. Saying "I don't care who makes it, I just want 2001: A Space Odyssey or Full Metal Jacket." Well, you're not going to get it. It won't be the same. The creators matter more than anything. Prey 2 is Human Head's creation. They were with the franchise for over a decade. Bethesda's had it for four years and in that time they've managed to turn one of the most promising games of the generation into a catastrophe. Kicking off the developer in spite of doing great work, lying to the press and fans, setting up suspect deals with inappropriate developers. Prey 2 will be a disaster unless it returns to it's creators. Arkane's Prey 2 doesn't exist yet. Human Head's does and is nearly finished.

Bethesda can't back peddle on it. Arkane's level designer, Dan Todd said it was "incredible". George Broussard spoke to Bethesda's QA team who told him it was awesome and to "believe the hype on this one." I've talked to members of the QA team who've personally told me that the game is one of the best shooters ever made. They loved working on it, and more importantly, playing it. You've seen Human Head team members stand up for their work. Doesn't that tell you everything? The have reason to be proud.

When developers put their heart and soul into their work, it shows. I saw this with Prey 1.

Its that sense that the game hits you on a personal level. Like that of a good book or movie.

It brings you to appreciate things in a way that sticks with you for years to come..

I've rarely had a game touch me the way that Prey 1 did.

After the past few years, scouring over the small bits of Prey 2's masterful presentation, photos, music, and plot references, I can say that it really helped me appreciate the cyberpunk/alien noire genres and introduced me to many other mediums in those genres.

Alien Noire and Cyberpunk are very untapped in the gaming world and I hope that changes.

human head needs to make a new ip of their own now

If this is true... then I am incredibly disappointed and disgusted. I will not buy Prey 2 from a studio that is not Human Head.

Bethesda you have behaved like a child throwing a temper tantrum over Human Heads choice to remain independent. If you think another studio can match what we've seen from HH... you better learn quick.

Bethesda, you need to accept that Human Head has a better build of Prey 2 than any other company could ever dream to produce.

You can sit there and farm the ip around while strong-arming Arkane to work on it but that does not mean it will be a better product in the long run.

It is clearly obvious that every enthusiast of the Prey series wants the Prey 2 that Human Head created.

You, as a company, are doing a great injustice to Human Head by neglecting to let them present a great work of art.

Human Head deserves to show their vision to the world.

Stop the nonsense. Give Human Head the project back. Give Prey fans the game they saw at E3 2011.

p.s

idTech 4 is a much better looking engine than unreal engine 3.

This x100000. If this is true Bethesda (publisher) is acting like a spoiled child.

Bethesda, I have supported you for many years and love many of your games in house/published. I understand from a business standpoint you need money. I know you knew what prey 2 would have been and how big it would become. Probably why you wanted to buy out HH. What you are doing now is a tragedy to gaming! If these rumors are true you will be no better than Activiston.

I'm just one fan of many who remember the awe of prey 2 at e3. Please as a fan and supporter of your company for well over a decade go back to human head and work out the problems. Bad blood may be there but they want the fans to play their work.

This could have given you a franchise as huge as the elder scrolls. Throwing this away is like rock star deciding to end gta!