The original Prey released as an Xbox 360 exclusive all the way back in 2006, receiving plenty of praise and garning enough positive feedback to warrant a sequel. Those requests from fans were answered 5 years later, and a slick trailer promised more exciting content. After that single preview, however, ongoing problems behind the development of Prey 2 left the game in development purgatory. Now made official by publisher Bethesda, the game has been completely canceled after years of Duke Nukem-esque setbacks behind the scenes.

The development of Prey 2 has been a confusing rollercoaster ride for all involved, with the intellectual property's publishing rights transferring from 2K Games to Bethesda Studios, and the development reportedly changing from Human Head Studios to Arkane Studios, something which was repeatedly denied by the publisher. Bethesda has kept quite on all things regarding the game since then, until Bethesda Vice President Pete Hines finally revealed that the game was scrapped during PAX Australia this week:

It was game we believed in, but we never felt that it got to where it needed to be - we never saw a path to success if we finished it. It wasn't up to our quality standard and we decided to cancel it. It's no longer in development. That wasn't an easy decision, but it's one that won't surprise many folks given that we hadn't been talking about it.

After the transition of development between Human Head and Arkane, it came to light that most of the original work done to the game was likely being scrapped, leaving both studios reportedly unhappy as to how things turned out. The studio then went ahead and changed Prey 2 to something that resembled more System Shock than it did the original Prey, but whatever content was produced wasn't up to snuff according to Bethesda - though there may be a future attempt to revive the franchise down the line:

It's a franchise we still believe we can do something with -- we just need to see what that something is.

The decision to cancel the game will be a devasting blow to those who have waited almost 5 years since the initial trailer, but it's probably better that the publisher opted to wait until the time was right for a potential sequel instead of releasing a sub-par game.

Prey 2 was officially announced back in 2011. Do you think the property has the strength to stage another comeback after all these years?

You can follow John Jacques on Twitter @Makelevi.

Source: CNET