[Kathy]

Like there is much difference between being cancelled or in limbo.

[Kristian Joensen]

There was for the original Prey and for DNF, among others.

[Kathy]

Actually, Prey is my prime example of no difference between being cancelled and in limbo. The development was de facto stopped/cancelled and after several years game was started again from scratch. It's not like when game is cancelled trademark is called off, builds are deleted and everyone just forgets about it.

Right now development stopped. Limbo or not, the game is not being made.

[Kristian Joensen]

Well that same was true for DNF in May 2009.

[TerminX]

Sorta. DNF was still worked on in private by a bunch of the people who worked on it at 3D Realms (and who eventually became companies like Triptych, who finished the game working with Gearbox). The downtime between 3DR closing their development studio and production on DNF continuing was a month or two, tops.

[Kristian Joensen]

Yep I know, the point is only that there can be a difference between being in limbo and being cancelled. Are things looking good for Prey 2? No sadly not. But it could still be salvaged.

[thatguy]

Burnett, on 18 October 2012 - 06:25 AM, said:

Actually, Prey is my prime example of no difference between being cancelled and in limbo. The development was de facto stopped/cancelled and after several years game was started again from scratch. It's not like when game is cancelled trademark is called off, builds are deleted and everyone just forgets about it.

Right now development stopped. Limbo or not, the game is not being made.

The difference between limbo and cancelled by technical terms is as follows:

Limbo: Project has been removed from lineup and placed on the backburner ready to be worked on at a later date. Partial resources may remain to prevent a full stop.

Cancelled: Project has made a permanent stop and has been shelved due to limited resources or no longer appropriate to the studio/company. Assets may or may not be spread among another project.

[Mr. Tibbs]

One of the developers on Prey 2's Facebook page encouraging fans interested in the status of the game to inquire 'more directly' and get in contact with Bethesda.

Attached thumbnail(s)

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[Martin]

Mr. Tibbs, on 20 October 2012 - 04:30 PM, said:

One of the developers on Prey 2's Facebook page encouraging fans interested in the status of the game to inquire 'more directly' and get in contact with Bethesda.

Meh, I reckon we'll never see it again. The more time there is between the present day and the release of Prey 1, the less relevant Prey 2 becomes. It wouldn't surprise me if that was the reason for the cancellation to begin with. Somebody within Bethesda decided that nobody wanted a sequel to an obscure 2006 shooter in 2012/13.

[thatguy]

Martin, on 20 October 2012 - 07:26 PM, said:

Meh, I reckon we'll never see it again. The more time there is between the present day and the release of Prey 1, the less relevant Prey 2 becomes. It wouldn't surprise me if that was the reason for the cancellation to begin with. Somebody within Bethesda decided that nobody wanted a sequel to an obscure 2006 shooter in 2012/13.

They didn't think that maybe no one cared about Prey, but people cared about a non-linear Scifi Cyberpunk First Person Shooter? Idiots.

[Martin]

Or both. I remember thinking when Prey 2 was announced "That's pretty random. Cool as hell because I loved Prey, but random nonetheless".

[Kathy]

In case anyone forgot why this limbo mess started.

Quote

According to a Shacknews source who asked not to be identified, Human Head was not happy with the terms of its contract with ZeniMax, and deliberately stopped work on the game in November so it could try to negotiate a more favorable deal.

http://www.shacknews...-since-november

[Martin]

Ah, well it'd be interesting to hear what those unacceptable terms were. If true, maybe Human Head should just read their contracts before they sign them, in future?

Wasn't there some other thing where the publisher didn't said that progress on the game didn't meet their standards or some such?

[Kathy]

There was. Try readin' a book thread sometime.

http://forums.duke4....post__p__134694

[Martin]

Pfft, I read that. I just forgot about it. So which is it? Did Human Head discover that they hadn't read their contract properly, or was the publisher not impressed with their progress?

[Kathy]

Most likely both. The development was stopped a year ago, thus the game doesn't meet Beth's standards.

[X-Vector]

Martin, on 20 October 2012 - 07:41 PM, said:

Or both. I remember thinking when Prey 2 was announced "That's pretty random. Cool as hell because I loved Prey, but random nonetheless".

I actually liked that Human Head were moving away from the original, as I never gave much of a hoot about (their version of) Prey.
If Prey 2 was designed as a straight sequel, I would have cared less about the current limbo situation.

[Martin]

X-Vector, on 21 October 2012 - 03:53 AM, said:

I actually liked that Human Head were moving away from the original, as I never gave much of a hoot about (their version of) Prey.
If Prey 2 was designed as a straight sequel, I would have cared less about the current limbo situation.

Nah, I didn't mean random in the sense that Prey 2 is very different to Prey. I mean random in the sense that Prey wasn't such a massive success, and to release a sequel to it six or seven years later is a bit random. From what I've seen of Prey 2, it seems to be an extremely-refreshing take on the idea of what a sequel should be. I haven't even seen one mention of portals or low gravity. I loved the first game to bits, but equally I liked everything I saw and read of Prey 2. Shame we'll never get it, now.

[Kathy]

Prey still sold a million which is quite good.

[Martin]

Ah, fair enough. I was under the impression that it's a niche game.

[X-Vector]

Well, it did drop off the radar incredibly quickly and the multiplayer part was dead in the water.
That one million units sales figure is fairly impressive considering Prey left very little mark on the collective gaming consciousness, so to speak.

[Mr.Deviance]

X-Vector, on 22 October 2012 - 12:45 AM, said:

Well, it did drop off the radar incredibly quickly and the multiplayer part was dead in the water.
That one million units sales figure is fairly impressive considering Prey left very little mark on the collective gaming consciousness, so to speak.

Prey to me is that cool game made with doom3's engine that impressed me but I never got time to beat and I keep wishing I find the time to go back to it and resume it from god knows where I left it
I've been having that feeling ever since the game came out.
If I see it now, the graphics are most likely not going to be as impressive as I remember them.

As for Bethesda's standards, I totally love to believe they have high standards but after they allowed doom3 bfg edition to come out in such a poor state following Rage's poor release, I wonder how low are their standards in reality.
Or maybe forcing id to censor the shit out of doom2, ruining the lighting and textures of doom3, making every cut scene and intro video unskippable, the entire game unmoddable and replacing the auto save and manual save mechanism with checkpoints, is their idea of high standards...
Aww and I almost forgot to mention that their lost missions chapter bonus for Doom3 is almost entirely made out of copy pasted areas of the original levels.
If you didn't know this, check this these comparison screenshots and be amazed...
http://img854.images.../d3bfglobby.jpg
http://img685.images...3bfggarage2.jpg
http://img196.images...d3bfgchasar.jpg
http://img89.imagesh...bfgsurfacen.jpg
http://img571.images...d3bfgoffice.jpg
http://img571.images...ghallwindow.jpg
http://img268.images...d3bfgbridge.jpg
http://img805.images...fgmetalhall.jpg

So I don't really see how Bethesda has such high standards that a game as great looking as prey2 would be shelved due to standards but I guess we might never know...

[Kathy]

I don't believe they replaced save system. Just added chekcpoints which is hardly a problem. Censoring... yeah, this could be because Beth didn't want to bother with releasing German version so they made one for all.

[thatguy]

I know this is out of left field, but I think its cool to see Doom 3 with proper widescreen support. Seeing the weapon models like that is awesome. Plus the sharp HUD visuals. Damn, this should of been a 10$ game. I'd buy it....also sucks it doesn't support previous mods. :/

[rasmus thorup]

The hud looks so much better. But wodescreen support doesn't interrest me.

[Mr. Tibbs]

Sounds like Human Head were working on a cancelled multiplayer mode for Bioshock Infinite.

http://www.nowgamer....dev_rumour.html
https://twitter.com/...998202152820737

Certainly would make sense seeing as they had the Timothy Gerritsen connection at Irrational.

And here's a pretty good write up about why Prey 2 would be ideal for a revival (although the articles silly for exploring the possibility of Human Head rebranding the work and selling it to another publisher as Zenimax owns the id Tech 4 licence and the work itself.)

http://www.ausgamers...es/read/3251361

Hope we hear some official news soon on the project.

[thatguy]

I'm sick of any addition of multiplayer to a singleplayer centric game.

[lazarus]

New here...

I'm pretty sure they're working on Bioshock. Here's another place I found it referenced...

http://www.jasoneldr...sign/Resume.pdf

Not sure who to believe... Bethesda saying they had to stop Prey 2 because the quality wasn't there or Bioshock which would only accept top-quality help.

[Mr. Tibbs]

Nice find lazarus. Human Head haven't touched Prey 2 since November last year. The game was in beta and was content complete. The nature of the dispute between Human Head and Bethesda seems pretty odd. Its ludicrous that an independent developer would put themselves in such an untenable position unless the circumstances were extraordinary. From what I've heard, it seems Bethesda delayed the game until Dishonored shipped and now half of Arkane is putting the finishing touches on Prey 2, while the rest works on the DLC for Dishonored. Hopefully we'll get an update from Bethesda soon. I really want the game.

[lazarus]

Mr. Tibbs, on 27 November 2012 - 02:28 PM, said:

Nice find lazarus. Human Head haven't touched Prey 2 since November last year. The game was in beta and was content complete. The nature of the dispute between Human Head and Bethesda seems pretty odd. Its ludicrous that an independent developer would put themselves in such an untenable position unless the circumstances were extraordinary. From what I've heard, it seems Bethesda delayed the game until Dishonored shipped and now half of Arkane is putting the finishing touches on Prey 2, while the rest works on the DLC for Dishonored. Hopefully we'll get an update from Bethesda soon. I really want the game.

Thanks for the info Tibbs! Where did you hear about Arkane working on it? Prey 2 is made on idtech while Dishonored was made on Unreal, so Arkane doesn't have any significant idtech experience. I really wish Bethesda would say something. It's makes no sense to not say anything if they're working on it. At least post a screenshot or something to show people something new.