lightskintwin
Banned
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKw_VUuZjCE
New HyperBitHero video about the cancelled sequel to the original Prey.
New HyperBitHero video about the cancelled sequel to the original Prey.
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Lost in Concept - Prey 2 and a Hostile Acquisition Gone Wrong
- Thread starter lightskintwin
- Start date
HyperBitHero
Member
Thanks for making a thread about the video, man. Hope you guys enjoy it and find it informative.
It is, as always. Thank you for your work, I really enjoy watching your channel.
As for this video: I almost forgot how gorgeous the game looked. A damn shame that we never get to playing it. Although I wonder: the shown demo certainly wasn't the console version, was it? It looks to good to be true for an PS360 game in my opinion.
Btw: could't Human Head just rename the game and sell it to another publisher? Why wasn't something like that an option?
lightskintwin
Banned
You're videos are always great and really detailed.
HyperBitHero
Member
Thank you. I'm glad I was able to sum everything up to satisfy even someone like you who knew so much about the development issues.
minameissteve
Banned
I haven't kept up with anything related to Prey before, so this is all new to me.
That's some really messed up stuff on Bethesda's part. That Prey 2 footage looked really promising even seeing it for the first time 5 years later, so it's a real shame that Bethesda held them hostage like that. Human Head could've really grown if they had the chance to release it.
That's some really messed up stuff on Bethesda's part. That Prey 2 footage looked really promising even seeing it for the first time 5 years later, so it's a real shame that Bethesda held them hostage like that. Human Head could've really grown if they had the chance to release it.
I loved Prey 1, wasnt even aware of this orginal Prey 2. I remember hearing it was cancelled, but didnt even know it was shown and got so much praise. Not sure how I missed it but damn did it look really incredible and fun, and looked gorgeous. Looks better and more interesting than all the current gen games being shown now. The new current Prey hasnt got me excited at all unfortunately.
This whole thing sucks. Fuck Bethesda if that is what indeed went down.
This whole thing sucks. Fuck Bethesda if that is what indeed went down.
In a way, it would sorta make sense. Most of the team working on Prey (2017) joined Arkane's Austin studio in 2014 as part of a massive hiring spree, so they never touched Dishonored or the studios previous efforts. That said, some of the recent additions to the team are super talented (eg: Hipbreaker from the Thief community), and I believe Anthony Huso (Lady Boyle's Last Party) is still there.
I think team members from Battlecry joined last year after that project was put on hold. That games was also powered by the Cry Engine.
This still stings. The combination of gameplay loop and the setting made for a really unique fps game even now. It's a crime that we couldn't have this. Sandbox FPS game set in a blade runner-esque alien city with fairly robust free running abilities doing bounty hunting? Fuck you big suits who made this into a shitshow. Smoothly played, now you got no game out of the deal and no fucking sales revenue from a game you pumped money in. It's a lose-lose for everyone. Even Bethesda themselves got shot in their own foot by this, if all of this is true.
hodayathink
Member
For as much as that is true, pretty much the same practices resulted in Dishonored and them buying Arkane. So it does have successes as well.
Spring-Loaded
Member
I've been waiting for this vid
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
Will watch!
Thanks for the thread
Thanks for the thread
HyperBitHero
Member
And now they're funding a whole new game to try and make some sort of profit off the Prey IP.
Boards of Canada
Member
Great run down on a game I kinda forgot about. It's pretty crazy how many games get to an alpha/beta state and never get published. I have a friend at Bioware here in Edmonton that told me about a couple projects that were playable and approaching QA that never saw the light of day. Then I start wondering what kind of unseen treasures happen at other studios like Nintendo. Crazy.
grosvenor_92
Member
Arkane's game looks like it could be good but Human Head had something that looked so much more interesting imo. If Human Head creates an IP that's similar to the original vision of what Prey 2 was suppose to be I hope they do.
I guess in a utopian world where publishers actually care about helping make great games possible, we would now be playing this instead of watching swan songs about it. But hey, at least Bethesda got a great chance at snatching up another studio for themselves. I think everyone can sympathize with them here. I mean, who hasn't ever tried to initiate a hostile takeover of a competing company or blackmail a smaller one into better terms?
Spiral Insanity
Banned
Subscribed, great video.
Hard to imagine all that bad blood is worth it for Bethesda. Companies like Arkane can't be happy about being victims of hostile takeover and have their hand forced.
Corpsepyre
Banned
Fuck. Prey 2 looked so good!
BETHESDAAAAAAAAAAA!
BETHESDAAAAAAAAAAA!
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
Scumiest thing I've ever heard about in this industry
SwaggerMcDagger
Banned
Awesome video as always from HBH. I remember seeing the Prey 2 trailer a long time ago but I never knew they showed actual gameplay. Shame it never saw an official release since it looked pretty neat. Also, is it me or does Prey 2 (2017) look eerily similar to XCOM declassified before it turned into a TPS?
Companies like Arkane were circling the drain before getting taken over. They had not released a game since 2006, had three canceled games in a row, and resorted to picking up subcontractor work scraps on COD and Bioshock 2 to survive.
With Bethesda, they've released the very successful Dishonored and have two more AAA games that are looking great on the way. The industry benefitted from this one. Doesn't always work out that way though, Human Head being an example.
Souless Squirrel
Member
Great video always miss Prey 2 it looked like the bounty hunter in the future game I always wanted. Maybe all this buzz around the new prey will show a developer out there we want a good space bounty hunter game. All I know after hearing what bethesda has down with past developers over the years I have grown increasing reluctant to support anything they put out. Obsidian, Humanhead, Suckerpunch, another developer that spoke out a long time ago i can't remember a long with some stories from Inexile have really tarnished their reputation for me. Well outside of the buggy games/dlc they try to release.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Honestly, I still don't understand why no other publisher has approached Human Head and contracted them to make a similar game. They've only worked with Amazon since then IIRC, which is odd given how promising this looked.
Probably because Human Head are now unfairly tarnished as having been unable to deliver a game on the scale of Prey 2.
Great video, as always. But I have to disaggree with you.
I find your video very hostile towards Arkane. Dishonored was a great game, one of my goats actually, and you're trying to make them accountable for what happened to the brand "Prey". They do not deserve any of your blame.
And, to be honest, all this whining about how Prey 2 isn't now what it was said to be once, is pretty weird. All this talk about the Prey scenario and the Prey universe - there was ONE Prey game. No books, no comics, no add-ons nothing. Just one game (a great one) and I think they initially planned a trilogy (?). I know that Prey was in development for quite a while (I think they started in the 90s) and they definitely had a great vision for the game. And of course it sucks to be bereft of one own's idea.
Prey 1 was a weird game with a super weird story - but in a good way. I liked it but I wouldn't say it was one of the best games of that generation, however, it deserved all the praise it got.
The first announced Prey 2 had basically nothing to do with Prey 1. They tried to connect it to the prequel but imho it felt very forced. I can totally see why Bethesda bought the name and the publishing rights. Prey 1 was a great game, with a great studio behind it (Rune was also very good). Personally, I understand why they shut down their vision of Prey 2. And I cannot understand why everybody seems to want a bountyhunter game. Their protagonist in Prey 1 was so cool and interesting and they would switch him for a boring white male vigilante who sets out to be a bountyhunter because he was an air marshall and that's the motivation for him to be righteous and kill people for money.
I think we should give Arkane more credit. Their Prey looks gorgeous and way more interesting than the initial scenario for Prey 2. Everybody shoul stop bashing the new Prey and Arkane. Blame Bethesda. Blame Human Head for not looking into other options. I quite sure there would habe been other publishers that would've bought them after their success with Prey 1.
I would be really interested what happened surrounding the cancellation...
I find your video very hostile towards Arkane. Dishonored was a great game, one of my goats actually, and you're trying to make them accountable for what happened to the brand "Prey". They do not deserve any of your blame.
And, to be honest, all this whining about how Prey 2 isn't now what it was said to be once, is pretty weird. All this talk about the Prey scenario and the Prey universe - there was ONE Prey game. No books, no comics, no add-ons nothing. Just one game (a great one) and I think they initially planned a trilogy (?). I know that Prey was in development for quite a while (I think they started in the 90s) and they definitely had a great vision for the game. And of course it sucks to be bereft of one own's idea.
Prey 1 was a weird game with a super weird story - but in a good way. I liked it but I wouldn't say it was one of the best games of that generation, however, it deserved all the praise it got.
The first announced Prey 2 had basically nothing to do with Prey 1. They tried to connect it to the prequel but imho it felt very forced. I can totally see why Bethesda bought the name and the publishing rights. Prey 1 was a great game, with a great studio behind it (Rune was also very good). Personally, I understand why they shut down their vision of Prey 2. And I cannot understand why everybody seems to want a bountyhunter game. Their protagonist in Prey 1 was so cool and interesting and they would switch him for a boring white male vigilante who sets out to be a bountyhunter because he was an air marshall and that's the motivation for him to be righteous and kill people for money.
I think we should give Arkane more credit. Their Prey looks gorgeous and way more interesting than the initial scenario for Prey 2. Everybody shoul stop bashing the new Prey and Arkane. Blame Bethesda. Blame Human Head for not looking into other options. I quite sure there would habe been other publishers that would've bought them after their success with Prey 1.
I would be really interested what happened surrounding the cancellation...
Spring-Loaded
Member
Even when ignoring the first game, the difference between 1 and what would've been 2, ignoring the protagonists, the subjectivity of what people would want out of these games and ignoring Arkane's situation (haven't finished the video yet — does HyperBitHero actually bash Arkane in any way, or is that "leave Arkane alone" comment about comments not in this thread, or just a strawman argument?), what Bethesda did is awful.
That's the whole takeaway: What Bethesda did is fucked up. There's no grounds for a "get over it," argument when Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax are still in operation, still can do this to other devs and still could get away with it, as myriad sources have stated and suggested they have in the past, long before the HumanHead situation. The genre, gameplay, identity of these games, etc. don't matter beyond one's personal tastes and preferences. What matters is every development company should be aware of what Bethesda and ZeniMax will very likely try to do with them if the dev chooses to work with them.
And being a bounty hunter in a cyberpunk space hub is still an awesome theme for a game — there's no point trying to disparage that concept to make your point (which seems misplaced here).
And to the bolded: did you watch the video?...
Souless Squirrel
Member
I didn't get any Arkane studio bashing from that video. He talks a bit about how using the prey name probably wasn't the best idea if you weren't gonna relate to it in some way but that is about it.
Their contract almost assuredly prevented them from doing that.
Spring-Loaded
Member
Yeah, I just finished the video and there's no bashing of Arkane.
Dynamite Shikoku
Congratulations, you really deserve it!
What a weird post. Did we watch the same thing?
redunzgofasta
Member
Really interesting watch. Sucks that this game will most likely never come out.
I watched the video. He doesn't "bash" Arkane but I felt there was some resentment - which is, to some extent, comprehensible because Prey 2 and it's idea was canned.
Concerning the mismanagement of Bethesda, I totally agree with you. I do not want to defend Bethesda, not at all. But I think it would be unfair to judge Arkane for doing the new Prey.
Of course we can argue about the initial setting of Prey 2. This is a matter of taste.
Good summary video, however, near the end of the video the host is saying that it is a shame that a game that doesn't share the same gameplay as Prey is using the Prey name while also saying how much he misses the originally pitched Prey 2 game which shared none of the same gameplay as the original Prey.
I don't disagree, I just thought it was funny.
I don't disagree, I just thought it was funny.
Yeah. I mean I like the looks of the new game called "Prey" by Arkane but only by it's own merits. I'll play it for what it is since Arkane is not to blame for any of this. The whole thing is just so amazingly stupid by Bethesda/Zeni. I can just imagine the shot-callers being all "Fuck yeah man the game looks baller and now we got this studio by the balls!", and then when Human Heads won't budge no matter what and the game becomes a net loss since no game comes to fruition and Bethesda being all "Fucking fucking FUCK FUCK! This was supposed to be a surefire plan! We fucked up big time". They thought it was such a good idea to do what they did. Looking real fucking smart right now. Incompetent fucks whoever they were that pushed for this.
Although what happened to Human Head was really unfair I have to say that as a fun of the original Prey the announcement of the sequel left me apathetic. I mean it felt a completely different game with the Prey name tacked on. Where were the gravity gameplay, the portals, alien weaponry, the weird story? All I saw on the E3 announcement were conventional weapons, a story that had nothing to do with the original game and a protagonist who had lost his memory..... wonder where I have seen this again. It is sad to hear that the Arkane version of Prey will have no connection with the original either too bad.
Just about the entire design team remains. Monte martinez, steve powers, ricardo bare, anthony huso, rich wilson. Only other designers are nathaniel from looking glass, jeremy from thief mods, and me and albert from irrational. Thats it. To say we never touched dishonored is hilariously wrong.
Im sure the artists and programmers would shake their heads as well.
I watched this yesterday. Fantastic work man and very informative. The whole situation still pisses me off.