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Ex-Human Head developer alleges on Twitter that Bethesda is lying about Prey 2

Grief.exe

Member
Keep in mind that developers often create great looking vertical slices to present.

Irrational did that with Infinite.

I know, but that was in 2011. Think about where they would be now if Zenimax/Bethesda didn't stop production.

There is definitely more to this story and I hope we get the full story eventually.

What were the final sales numbers for Prey?
 
Human head prey 2 is bad. I doubt arkane studio will do any better unless they create a completely new prey 2 or maybe a reboot with a better story, new characters and new game play.

Then you never saw the hour-long demo press were shown back at BFG 2011 in Utah, Bethesda's pre-E3 event at the time.

For the record, in case anyone is wondering, that BFG presentation was brilliant. Like, really great. I really am quite saddened that Human Head's version of the game is now likely to be six feet under as I'm sure that had we gotten to see more of it, it really would have been such a great game based on what was shown in Salt Lake City two years ago. :(
 

jdl

Banned
yeah... everything they've shown looks like it's coming from a team that had their shit together. very peculiar.
 

unbias

Member
"You either work with us, or you don't work in this industry at all!"



Well this reinforces my point of Bethesda being a company with shitty practices: they're obligating Arkane, a company that should have the same freedom as Naughty Dog, work on a game that should be out already but it isn't because of their terrible treatment of developers.

Ya, forcing a developer to make something they don't want to, doesn't exactly sound like a recipe for success. Not to mention it would seem like they would have to expand the team to be able to handle 2 projects, which then dilutes what gamers are expecting from a developer, imo. Hopefully "treat it as system shock", actually happens, that would be the 1 strand of good news that comes out of the mess.
 

pa22word

Member
Which makes you wonder what team worked on Dishonored and what team would be working on this. The name brand isnt as important as the people working on it.

Both of them did. Harvey Smith (lead designer on both Deus Ex and Dishonored) still lives in Texas afaik, and is most definitely leading up development on the new version of Prey 2 if that's what the Austin studio is indeed working on.
 

Swifty

Member
Both of them did. Harvey Smith (lead designer on both Deus Ex and Dishonored) still lives in Texas afaik, and is most definitely leading up development on the new version of Prey 2 if that's what the Austin studio is indeed working on.
Actually, Harvey Smith just recently moved to France to presumably work at the Lyon Arkane office.
 

cuyahoga

Dudebro, My Shit is Fucked Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time
Both of them did. Harvey Smith (lead designer on both Deus Ex and Dishonored) still lives in Texas afaik, and is most definitely leading up development on the new version of Prey 2 if that's what the Austin studio is indeed working on.
Actually, Harvey Smith just moved to Lyon like last month. He tweeted about it too. Found it sort of odd at the time, but this sort contextualizes that a bit.

Edit: Beaten.
 
What kind of petty feud makes a publisher sit on a completed game but not release it? You're practically sitting on an oil reserve but choosing not to drill. The Arkane Studio rumors makes it seem like they're starting from scratch.
Probably something with contracts? Like the IP is the publisher's until the game is released, payments, that kind of stuff.
 

Eusis

Member
Still doesn't explain the desire to strap the title, but not the game, onto one of your best developers.
If pettiness really was a factor maybe that was part of it, just to have it made ANYWAY? Especially if there was some contractual obligation of it falling back into their hands if nothing was done with it.

Though I guess they may've promised it to investors and want to show it wasn't "canceled" or it's some warped fulfillment of consumer demand that wanted Prey 2, even though they wanted the game shown off earlier and not necessarily whatever Arkane would make. At any rate it comes off as completely baffling unless SOMEONE had it in their head to develop it as an IP, but given its heritage it seems better just to start fresh anyway.
 

n8rtot

Neo Member
You guys know Bethesda owns Arkane, so they can make them do whatever they want them to do. During production of Dishonored, Bethesda started to arbitrarily reject milestones. In doing so, the then-independent-Arkane had to find ways to pay their staff since successful milestones are what feeds the bank. Knowing that Arkane wasn't making their milestones on time and potentially going to suffer internally, such as loosing staff, or ultimately shutting down, Bethesda's parent company Zenimax stepped in to help Arkane out by floating them loans during this "quality issue" period. That seemed nice of Zenimax to help out Arkane, right?

Now since Bethesda had been rejecting milestones because they didn't believe Arkane was maintaining the quality they originally promised, Arkane's also severely behind schedule because time has been spent correctly and addressing Bethesda's issues with previously rejected milestones.

Since Zenimax is also the company that's invested in Bethesda, they start telling Arkane they have serious concerns about their ability to finish the Dishonored. Even though they originally floating them loans to keep Arkane running, they now give them an ultimatum: pay back the loans or sell them the studio for some piddly amount. If Arkane doesn't do either, then Zenimax will take them court for breach of contract since they're now so far behind in the project.

Remember, it's because Zenimax's company Bethesda has been rejecting milestones that put Arkane behind in the first place.

The outcome is Arkane reluctantly sold their independence to Zenimax so they could continue the creative work they started and at the very least have public recognition for their efforts.

This is why Bethesda can tell Arkane to do whatever they want them to do now.

What would you do if you were making Prey 2 and started wondering why Bethesda was suddenly treating you differently? You'd start looking at past independent developers Bethesda has had deals with to understand if it's a developer issue or a publisher issue. When you discover Bethesda started to reject milestones at not only Arkane, but Splash Damage and inXile, you start to see a pattern. Knowing the fate of Arkane, if you were the Prey 2 developer would just sit there and see what happens or would you confront the publisher?
 

unbias

Member
If pettiness really was a factor maybe that was part of it, just to have it made ANYWAY? Especially if there was some contractual obligation of it falling back into their hands if nothing was done with it.

Though I guess they may've promised it to investors and want to show it wasn't "canceled" or it's some warped fulfillment of consumer demand that wanted Prey 2, even though they wanted the game shown off earlier and not necessarily whatever Arkane would make. At any rate it comes off as completely baffling unless SOMEONE had it in their head to develop it as an IP, but given its heritage it seems better just to start fresh anyway.

That is just it, ZeniMax is a private company, which makes this even more confusing. They are not beholden to the public, but only themselves, and even if they have multiple private share holder system inside the company, they have no reason to force their own hand. The only way what you said makes since if there are multiple employee's with large stake/shares in the company, and this is where the petty political infighting comes from, even assuming this is the case.
 

JDSN

Banned
You guys know Bethesda owns Arkane, so they can make them do whatever they want them to do. During production of Dishonored, Bethesda started to arbitrarily reject milestones. In doing so, the then-independent-Arkane had to find ways to pay their staff since successful milestones are what feeds the bank. Knowing that Arkane wasn't making their milestones on time and potentially going to suffer internally, such as loosing staff, or ultimately shutting down, Bethesda's parent company Zenimax stepped in to help Arkane out by floating them loans during this "quality issue" period. That seemed nice of Zenimax to help out Arkane, right?

Now since Bethesda had been rejecting milestones because they didn't believe Arkane was maintaining the quality they originally promised, Arkane's also severely behind schedule because time has been spent correctly and addressing Bethesda's issues with previously rejected milestones.

Since Zenimax is also the company that's invested in Bethesda, they start telling Arkane they have serious concerns about their ability to finish the Dishonored. Even though they originally floating them loans to keep Arkane running, they now give them an ultimatum: pay back the loans or sell them the studio for some piddly amount. If Arkane doesn't do either, then Zenimax will take them court for breach of contract since they're now so far behind in the project.

Remember, it's because Zenimax's company Bethesda has been rejecting milestones that put Arkane behind in the first place.

The outcome is Arkane reluctantly sold their independence to Zenimax so they could continue the creative work they started and at the very least have public recognition for their efforts.

This is why Bethesda can tell Arkane to do whatever they want them to do now.

What would you do if you were making Prey 2 and started wondering why Bethesda was suddenly treating you differently? You'd start looking at past independent developers Bethesda has had deals with to understand if it's a developer issue or a publisher issue. When you discover Bethesda started to reject milestones at not only Arkane, but Splash Damage and inXile, you start to see a pattern. Knowing the fate of Arkane, if you were the Prey 2 developer would just sit there and see what happens or would you confront the publisher?

I had no idea about this, holy shit, any articles about this?
 

Mrbob

Member
You guys know Bethesda owns Arkane, so they can make them do whatever they want them to do. During production of Dishonored, Bethesda started to arbitrarily reject milestones. In doing so, the then-independent-Arkane had to find ways to pay their staff since successful milestones are what feeds the bank. Knowing that Arkane wasn't making their milestones on time and potentially going to suffer internally, such as loosing staff, or ultimately shutting down, Bethesda's parent company Zenimax stepped in to help Arkane out by floating them loans during this "quality issue" period. That seemed nice of Zenimax to help out Arkane, right?

Now since Bethesda had been rejecting milestones because they didn't believe Arkane was maintaining the quality they originally promised, Arkane's also severely behind schedule because time has been spent correctly and addressing Bethesda's issues with previously rejected milestones.

Since Zenimax is also the company that's invested in Bethesda, they start telling Arkane they have serious concerns about their ability to finish the Dishonored. Even though they originally floating them loans to keep Arkane running, they now give them an ultimatum: pay back the loans or sell them the studio for some piddly amount. If Arkane doesn't do either, then Zenimax will take them court for breach of contract since they're now so far behind in the project.

Remember, it's because Zenimax's company Bethesda has been rejecting milestones that put Arkane behind in the first place.

The outcome is Arkane reluctantly sold their independence to Zenimax so they could continue the creative work they started and at the very least have public recognition for their efforts.

This is why Bethesda can tell Arkane to do whatever they want them to do now.

What would you do if you were making Prey 2 and started wondering why Bethesda was suddenly treating you differently? You'd start looking at past independent developers Bethesda has had deals with to understand if it's a developer issue or a publisher issue. When you discover Bethesda started to reject milestones at not only Arkane, but Splash Damage and inXile, you start to see a pattern. Knowing the fate of Arkane, if you were the Prey 2 developer would just sit there and see what happens or would you confront the publisher?

Wow, this is pretty damning commentary against Bethesda and a possible conspiracy with Zenimax. Do you have any way to verify this info to others.
 

Swifty

Member
You guys know Bethesda owns Arkane, so they can make them do whatever they want them to do. During production of Dishonored, Bethesda started to arbitrarily reject milestones. In doing so, the then-independent-Arkane had to find ways to pay their staff since successful milestones are what feeds the bank. Knowing that Arkane wasn't making their milestones on time and potentially going to suffer internally, such as loosing staff, or ultimately shutting down, Bethesda's parent company Zenimax stepped in to help Arkane out by floating them loans during this "quality issue" period. That seemed nice of Zenimax to help out Arkane, right?

Now since Bethesda had been rejecting milestones because they didn't believe Arkane was maintaining the quality they originally promised, Arkane's also severely behind schedule because time has been spent correctly and addressing Bethesda's issues with previously rejected milestones.

Since Zenimax is also the company that's invested in Bethesda, they start telling Arkane they have serious concerns about their ability to finish the Dishonored. Even though they originally floating them loans to keep Arkane running, they now give them an ultimatum: pay back the loans or sell them the studio for some piddly amount. If Arkane doesn't do either, then Zenimax will take them court for breach of contract since they're now so far behind in the project.

Remember, it's because Zenimax's company Bethesda has been rejecting milestones that put Arkane behind in the first place.

The outcome is Arkane reluctantly sold their independence to Zenimax so they could continue the creative work they started and at the very least have public recognition for their efforts.

This is why Bethesda can tell Arkane to do whatever they want them to do now.

What would you do if you were making Prey 2 and started wondering why Bethesda was suddenly treating you differently? You'd start looking at past independent developers Bethesda has had deals with to understand if it's a developer issue or a publisher issue. When you discover Bethesda started to reject milestones at not only Arkane, but Splash Damage and inXile, you start to see a pattern. Knowing the fate of Arkane, if you were the Prey 2 developer would just sit there and see what happens or would you confront the publisher?
My god, this explains everything.
 

n8rtot

Neo Member
Still doesn't explain the desire to strap the title, but not the game, onto one of your best developers.

Human Head has their own version of idTech. This is the only version that supports open world gameplay. Arkane on the other hand only has experience with Unreal. Because of these differences the project has to be restarted. There's no way it'll ever be what Human Head created, since Bethesda doesn't have source code for Prey 2. Even if they did, it would take them months to decipher it and I can't imagine Human Head cheerfully helping them out.

Also, it's going to cost Bethesda 10x more to have a different company do anything with Prey 2 than let Human Head finish it. The only developer they own which has the man-power and lower costs to make Prey 2 is Arkane Austin. Machine Games might have been a possible candidate but we know they're now working on Wolfenstein. Any other independent developer would either scoff at the low-ball figure Bethesda was offering or simply not have the experience to pull it off after some trial run. With Arkane, they can at least point to similar game mechanics despite being a completely different beast under the hood.
 

cuyahoga

Dudebro, My Shit is Fucked Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time
You guys know Bethesda owns Arkane, so they can make them do whatever they want them to do. During production of Dishonored, Bethesda started to arbitrarily reject milestones. In doing so, the then-independent-Arkane had to find ways to pay their staff since successful milestones are what feeds the bank. Knowing that Arkane wasn't making their milestones on time and potentially going to suffer internally, such as loosing staff, or ultimately shutting down, Bethesda's parent company Zenimax stepped in to help Arkane out by floating them loans during this "quality issue" period. That seemed nice of Zenimax to help out Arkane, right?

Now since Bethesda had been rejecting milestones because they didn't believe Arkane was maintaining the quality they originally promised, Arkane's also severely behind schedule because time has been spent correctly and addressing Bethesda's issues with previously rejected milestones.

Since Zenimax is also the company that's invested in Bethesda, they start telling Arkane they have serious concerns about their ability to finish the Dishonored. Even though they originally floating them loans to keep Arkane running, they now give them an ultimatum: pay back the loans or sell them the studio for some piddly amount. If Arkane doesn't do either, then Zenimax will take them court for breach of contract since they're now so far behind in the project.

Remember, it's because Zenimax's company Bethesda has been rejecting milestones that put Arkane behind in the first place.

The outcome is Arkane reluctantly sold their independence to Zenimax so they could continue the creative work they started and at the very least have public recognition for their efforts.

This is why Bethesda can tell Arkane to do whatever they want them to do now.

What would you do if you were making Prey 2 and started wondering why Bethesda was suddenly treating you differently? You'd start looking at past independent developers Bethesda has had deals with to understand if it's a developer issue or a publisher issue. When you discover Bethesda started to reject milestones at not only Arkane, but Splash Damage and inXile, you start to see a pattern. Knowing the fate of Arkane, if you were the Prey 2 developer would just sit there and see what happens or would you confront the publisher?
I am going to call bullshit here, honestly. This sounds like a repurposed version of those nonsense Duke forum theories surrounding Human Head. And the fact that all your posts stem from Prey 2-related things don't exactly inspire a lot of confidence.
 

Grief.exe

Member
You guys know Bethesda owns Arkane, so they can make them do whatever they want them to do. During production of Dishonored, Bethesda started to arbitrarily reject milestones. In doing so, the then-independent-Arkane had to find ways to pay their staff since successful milestones are what feeds the bank. Knowing that Arkane wasn't making their milestones on time and potentially going to suffer internally, such as loosing staff, or ultimately shutting down, Bethesda's parent company Zenimax stepped in to help Arkane out by floating them loans during this "quality issue" period. That seemed nice of Zenimax to help out Arkane, right?

Now since Bethesda had been rejecting milestones because they didn't believe Arkane was maintaining the quality they originally promised, Arkane's also severely behind schedule because time has been spent correctly and addressing Bethesda's issues with previously rejected milestones.

Since Zenimax is also the company that's invested in Bethesda, they start telling Arkane they have serious concerns about their ability to finish the Dishonored. Even though they originally floating them loans to keep Arkane running, they now give them an ultimatum: pay back the loans or sell them the studio for some piddly amount. If Arkane doesn't do either, then Zenimax will take them court for breach of contract since they're now so far behind in the project.

Remember, it's because Zenimax's company Bethesda has been rejecting milestones that put Arkane behind in the first place.

The outcome is Arkane reluctantly sold their independence to Zenimax so they could continue the creative work they started and at the very least have public recognition for their efforts.

This is why Bethesda can tell Arkane to do whatever they want them to do now.

What would you do if you were making Prey 2 and started wondering why Bethesda was suddenly treating you differently? You'd start looking at past independent developers Bethesda has had deals with to understand if it's a developer issue or a publisher issue. When you discover Bethesda started to reject milestones at not only Arkane, but Splash Damage and inXile, you start to see a pattern. Knowing the fate of Arkane, if you were the Prey 2 developer would just sit there and see what happens or would you confront the publisher?

So literally, signing with Bethesda is signing your own death warrant.

Would be interested to read an article on this.
 
Dudebro bounty hunter blade runner prey in name only was NOT the right direction for the series. I hope the new redone version is a true sequel with tommy and that alien princess and her people preventing a new threat from arising.
 

ReaperXL7

Member
Correct me if im wrong here ,but wasent the last update on Human Head that they were working on a follow up to that awesome Viking game they made during the PS2 era (think it was called Rune)? I was kind of hoping they would have had something to show for that by now, but i have not heard anything since.

Prey 2 is depressing though, was easily one of my most wanted games after it was announced. I doubt its anything like what Human Head was making if it still exsists today.
 

Grief.exe

Member
Dudebro bounty hunter blade runner prey in name only was NOT the right direction for the series. I hope the new redone version is a true sequel with tommy and that alien princess and her people preventing a new threat from arising.

The gameplay shown was definitely not the definition of dudebro or lowest common denominator.

Too many mechanics, abilities, and things happening at once to be aimed at that demographic.

Also, not enough explosions.
 

unbias

Member
You guys know Bethesda owns Arkane, so they can make them do whatever they want them to do. During production of Dishonored, Bethesda started to arbitrarily reject milestones. In doing so, the then-independent-Arkane had to find ways to pay their staff since successful milestones are what feeds the bank. Knowing that Arkane wasn't making their milestones on time and potentially going to suffer internally, such as loosing staff, or ultimately shutting down, Bethesda's parent company Zenimax stepped in to help Arkane out by floating them loans during this "quality issue" period. That seemed nice of Zenimax to help out Arkane, right?

Now since Bethesda had been rejecting milestones because they didn't believe Arkane was maintaining the quality they originally promised, Arkane's also severely behind schedule because time has been spent correctly and addressing Bethesda's issues with previously rejected milestones.

Since Zenimax is also the company that's invested in Bethesda, they start telling Arkane they have serious concerns about their ability to finish the Dishonored. Even though they originally floating them loans to keep Arkane running, they now give them an ultimatum: pay back the loans or sell them the studio for some piddly amount. If Arkane doesn't do either, then Zenimax will take them court for breach of contract since they're now so far behind in the project.

Remember, it's because Zenimax's company Bethesda has been rejecting milestones that put Arkane behind in the first place.

The outcome is Arkane reluctantly sold their independence to Zenimax so they could continue the creative work they started and at the very least have public recognition for their efforts.

This is why Bethesda can tell Arkane to do whatever they want them to do now.

What would you do if you were making Prey 2 and started wondering why Bethesda was suddenly treating you differently? You'd start looking at past independent developers Bethesda has had deals with to understand if it's a developer issue or a publisher issue. When you discover Bethesda started to reject milestones at not only Arkane, but Splash Damage and inXile, you start to see a pattern. Knowing the fate of Arkane, if you were the Prey 2 developer would just sit there and see what happens or would you confront the publisher?

What you are describing is a hostile takeover, by proxy... If this is true, and they used milestones to strong arm them into selling, that technically could be seen as an illegal form of hostile takeover, like with Vulcan and Gazit attempted takeovers. SEC technically has to look over those, curious if litigation would be possible in such a circumstance... A lawsuit would at least be technically possible.
 
I am going to call bullshit here, honestly. This sounds like a repurposed version of those nonsense Duke forum theories surrounding Human Head. And the fact that all your posts stem from Prey 2-related things don't exactly inspire a lot of confidence.

Yeah, I thought that was pretty strange too.

This Poster sounds likes an angry HH employee.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Dudebro bounty hunter blade runner prey in name only was NOT the right direction for the series. I hope the new redone version is a true sequel with tommy and that alien princess and her people preventing a new threat from arising.

Wow, sarcasm or have we found the one person who actually cared about the story in Prey?
 

n8rtot

Neo Member
That is just it, ZeniMax is a private company, which makes this even more confusing. They are not beholden to the public, but only themselves, and even if they have multiple private share holder system inside the company, they have no reason to force their own hand. The only way what you said makes since if there are multiple employee's with large stake/shares in the company, and this is where the petty political infighting comes from, even assuming this is the case.

A few years ago Zenimax received a large investment to acquire talent. I think it was $150 million or something. When you have a board of directors that include Jerry Bruckheimer and Donald Trump's brother as well as the original investors who want Zenimax to "acquire talent", then you're going to have members asking why Zenimax isn't making money outside of their core Bethesda studio (Scrolls and Fallout).

Since Zenimax botched Demon's Forge with inXile and Brink with Splash Damage, they had to bank on Arkane's Dishonored and Human Head's Prey 2. Arkane is what is today because of Bethesda. Dishonored is a success because of its original creators. Prey 2 is a strange IP though, since it was Bethesda's only sequel at the time and previously owned by the Radar Group. Doom 4 has had its own issues. Wolfenstein wasn't even known about when Prey 2 started having whatever happened to it.

Both Doom 4 and Wolfenstein's rights were purchased along with iD Software. There's no reverting of ownership after no use. Prey 2 on the other hand could revert back to the Radar Group if it's not used by a certain time or declared cancelled.

It could be Zenimax realized they were caught with their hand in the cookie jar with Human Head from a legal standpoint and it created some sort of stalemate. Zenimax's CEO is Robert Altman who was previously a lawyer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Altman. Maybe there's some period of time they were waiting out to legally do something else with Prey 2. Or they just couldn't find a developer with the talent or time to do something with Prey 2 until now, since they obviously didn't want to work with Human Head anymore.
 
You guys know Bethesda owns Arkane, so they can make them do whatever they want them to do. During production of Dishonored, Bethesda started to arbitrarily reject milestones. In doing so, the then-independent-Arkane had to find ways to pay their staff since successful milestones are what feeds the bank. Knowing that Arkane wasn't making their milestones on time and potentially going to suffer internally, such as loosing staff, or ultimately shutting down, Bethesda's parent company Zenimax stepped in to help Arkane out by floating them loans during this "quality issue" period. That seemed nice of Zenimax to help out Arkane, right?

Now since Bethesda had been rejecting milestones because they didn't believe Arkane was maintaining the quality they originally promised, Arkane's also severely behind schedule because time has been spent correctly and addressing Bethesda's issues with previously rejected milestones.

Since Zenimax is also the company that's invested in Bethesda, they start telling Arkane they have serious concerns about their ability to finish the Dishonored. Even though they originally floating them loans to keep Arkane running, they now give them an ultimatum: pay back the loans or sell them the studio for some piddly amount. If Arkane doesn't do either, then Zenimax will take them court for breach of contract since they're now so far behind in the project.

Remember, it's because Zenimax's company Bethesda has been rejecting milestones that put Arkane behind in the first place.

The outcome is Arkane reluctantly sold their independence to Zenimax so they could continue the creative work they started and at the very least have public recognition for their efforts.

This is why Bethesda can tell Arkane to do whatever they want them to do now.

What would you do if you were making Prey 2 and started wondering why Bethesda was suddenly treating you differently? You'd start looking at past independent developers Bethesda has had deals with to understand if it's a developer issue or a publisher issue. When you discover Bethesda started to reject milestones at not only Arkane, but Splash Damage and inXile, you start to see a pattern. Knowing the fate of Arkane, if you were the Prey 2 developer would just sit there and see what happens or would you confront the publisher?

Wow if this is true, I guess we know why Brian Fargo just upended the table on "big game publishers" in his kickstarter videos.
 

Desty

Banned
Wow, Bethesda are shady fucks if that story is true. I doubt any current employee would take the risk to confirm it though.
 

n8rtot

Neo Member
Yeah, I thought that was pretty strange too.

This Poster sounds likes an angry HH employee.

I'm not an HH employee. I've known about this for sometime though because I know people at Bethesda. Other people have spoken similar stories. It's Ockham's Razor once you acknowledge the legal complexities.

Besides, instead of snooping me go snoop Zenimax vs. Obsidian, Zenimax vs. Splash Damage, Zenimax vs. inXile, or even Zenimax vs. id Software. The unfortunate part to this is the Internet has a short attention span. A month from now, everything will simmer back down to the status quo and Zenimax will keep on truckin'
 
I'm guessing I'm one of the few people that has seen Prey 2 running during a Bethesda event in Park City, Utah. Looked like much more than a simple demo to me. The director specifically told me they didn't include any multiplayer this time because the team was concentrating on the single player.
 

Eusis

Member
That is just it, ZeniMax is a private company, which makes this even more confusing. They are not beholden to the public, but only themselves, and even if they have multiple private share holder system inside the company, they have no reason to force their own hand. The only way what you said makes since if there are multiple employee's with large stake/shares in the company, and this is where the petty political infighting comes from, even assuming this is the case.
Then I have to imagine it's more some weird quirk on the contract about ownership, and even that still comes off as petty. Unless they are really, REALLY hellbent on keeping all id Tech games (which is probably the only reason Prey 2 was coming from them), CoD seems to have a permanent out but I can't imagine anyone else is as lucky dealing with Bethesda if it's not simply a retro re-release.
 

Grief.exe

Member
I'm guessing I'm one of the few people that has seen Prey 2 running during a Bethesda event in Park City, Utah. Looked like much more than a simple demo to me. The director specifically told me they didn't include any multiplayer this time because the team was concentrating on the single player.

We need to find this video online sounds amazing.
 

unbias

Member
A few years ago Zenimax received a large investment to acquire talent. I think it was $150 million or something. When you have a board of directors that include Jerry Bruckheimer and Donald Trump's brother as well as the original investors who want Zenimax to "acquire talent", then you're going to have members asking why Zenimax isn't making money outside of their core Bethesda studio (Scrolls and Fallout).

Since Zenimax botched Demon's Forge with inXile and Brink with Splash Damage, they had to bank on Arkane's Dishonored and Human Head's Prey 2. Arkane is what is today because of Bethesda. Dishonored is a success because of its original creators. Prey 2 is a strange IP though, since it was Bethesda's only sequel at the time and previously owned by the Radar Group. Doom 4 has had its own issues. Wolfenstein wasn't even known about when Prey 2 started having whatever happened to it.

Both Doom 4 and Wolfenstein's rights were purchased along with iD Software. There's no reverting of ownership after no use. Prey 2 on the other hand could revert back to the Radar Group if it's not used by a certain time or declared cancelled.

It could be Zenimax realized they were caught with their hand in the cookie jar with Human Head from a legal standpoint and it created some sort of stalemate.
Zenimax's CEO is Robert Altman who was previously a lawyer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Altman. Maybe there's some period of time they were waiting out to legally do something else with Prey 2. Or they just couldn't find a developer with the talent or time to do something with Prey 2 until now, since they obviously didn't want to work with Human Head anymore.

That makes a lot more sense, why they made sure to keep the title going. Still though, if that is the case, then releasing the project from the current development studio and keeping it in development hell makes even less sense. You don't keep IP wound up in a hold if you can even make SOME money back on the investment. And if they really had a "full game" they were way past the 10 million point that is normally the recommended to can a project. Even switching hands of a project cost money, and unarguably a helluva lot more if they reset the project. From a business standpoint, what they are doing doesn't make sense.

Since they are private though, we will never know, unless there is a whistle-blower.
 

Jac_Solar

Member
About Bethesda telling them to "Just treat it like a new System Shock", could that be because they wanted/were working on the next System Shock? Maybe they even had System Shock assets in place, so Bethesda just told em to keep working on it as if it was System Shock. Since there's been a slight surge of interest and talk about System Shock recently, I wouldn't be that surprised.
 

Eusis

Member
No, if anything they would've probably had a spiritual successor in mind, in which case SOMEONE there may well think it's better to stick to an established IP rather than just make a new one. Only way it makes sense to go with Prey for that is if they intend to basically do their own take on Prey 1 that involved less portals (maybe) and more RPG systems.
 

Fjordson

Member
So sad if true. I was crazy hyped for this. The Blade Runner influence, the bounty hunting aspect, the open world city. Just sounded awesome.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
About Bethesda telling them to "Just treat it like a new System Shock", could that be because they wanted/were working on the next System Shock? Maybe they even had System Shock assets in place, so Bethesda just told em to keep working on it as if it was System Shock. Since there's been a slight surge of interest and talk about System Shock recently, I wouldn't be that surprised.

Im pretty sure EA owns System Shock.
 
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