Prey 2 Quietly Announced (UPDATED) March 12, 2011

Prey was the game that rose from the ashes of time like the proverbial Phoenix. It has been originally announced in the late 1990s and was originally in development at 3D Realms around the same time as Duke Nukem Forever. However, the technology just was not right for the times and despite very impressive showings at E3, the game was eventually outright cancelled while development at 3D Realms focused on Duke Nukem Forever (we all know that story).

However, in summer 2006, Prey was released for the Xbox 360 and PC through a joint development between 3D Realms and Human Head Studios and published through 2K Games. Using the Doom 3 graphics engine, Prey was a unique story where you played a Native American who had abandoned his roots and needed to reclaim them in order to save his girlfriend after they are abducted off their reservation by aliens.

It was quite a deep story about heritage and resistance against overwhelming opposition. The powers you used were a part of the mythology which had been established for centuries by the Native Americans and was done with incredible respect to their culture and heritage.

The game ended on a classic denouement which promised it would be continued. In fact, many interviews with 3D Realms (who produced the first game) announced Prey 2 was already in development at Human Head. However, after some time had passed Human Head announced they were no longer working on the project and 3D Realms later confirmed this, although a reason was never given. 3D Realms was in severe problems by this point over Duke Nukem Forever’s development, and while it is likely that this had something to do with Prey 2 being put on hiatus, I have no direct evidence to cite for this conclusion.

The first Prey 2 preview has graced the cover of an overseas gaming magazine, along with the announcement of the game. No details have been released yet as I don’t believe the magazine has reached shelves yet however the latest details I have found is that Bethesda is publishing it.

I will keep you up to date on all the details on this story as it is made available!

UPDATE: Bethesda has issued a press release on their blog with the full details. The game will be developed by Human Head (who I guess is resuming work on it because they were working on it after Prey’s completion then stopped) and will use id Software’s Tech engine. More details are expected next week.

Prey 2 is coming for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2012.

CLARIFICATION:  The press release mentioned that Prey 2 will use id Software’s tech engine, and a lot of websites jumped the gun that this would mean Prey 2 will use the engine that is powering RAGE and Doom 4, this is not the case.  Prey 2 is using an older id engine, likely the Doom 3 or Enemy Territory: Quake Wars engine.  Doom 3’s engine powered the first Prey game.