Bethesda marketing VP confirms the reason Prey 2 was cancelled, claiming the game wasn't moving in the direction Bethesda wanted for the franchise at the time.

Although rumors had leaked its existence long ago, many were still surprised to see Arkane Studios announce a new Prey title at Bethesda's E3 press conference this year. However, the announcement also served as a sad reminder about the cancelled Prey 2 a few years ago. With the new title announced and seemingly far different than Prey 2's premise, many gamers, including the folks at GameSpot, had a few lingering questions about what ever happened to Prey 2.

Bethesda answered those questions – in a manner of speaking – during QuakeCon this week. While speaking with GameSpot, Bethesda marketing VP Pete Hines pulled back the curtain and shared his thoughts about why Prey 2 was abandoned. Hines said:

I mean, honestly, it's really not that complicated. It hit a point where it wasn't shaping up to be what we wanted and there didn't seem to be a clear path to get to where we thought it needed to be. We decided the best thing to do was just to not proceed. That's just it.

In essence, the team at Bethesda didn’t feel like the developer behind the sequel, Human Head Studios, was producing the kind of game they wanted. And based on the way Hines explained it, the two developers didn’t see eye-to-eye about the direction of the game and parted ways with Bethesda first shifting development to Arkane Studios before ultimately canning the project. Hines alluded to a bad breakup when he continued:

I want those guys to have every success and to not have to keep bringing up this thing. Games get canceled. It happens. Marriages go bad. It happens.

Hines went on to say he contacted Human Head co-founder Chris Rhinehard ahead of the Prey reveal at E3 in July to give him the “heads up” that Bethesda was planning to announce the new title. However, Hines didn’t offer any insight to how Rhinehart reacted, and so far the Human Head co-founder has yet responded publicly to the short E3 Prey trailer and the gameplay shared at QuakeCon. Either way, it looks like Hines, and likely Rhinehart, are happy lay Prey 2 to rest and move forward on their respective projects.

While it seems there may still be a little tension between Bethesda and Human Head concerning Prey 2, players can rest assured that the franchise will continue and will live up to Bethesda’s high standards. And based on the impressive new gameplay trailer for Prey, gamers will have plenty to look forward to.

What do you think about Bethesda’s response to cancelling Prey 2?

Source: GameSpot