2017's Prey, developed by Arkane under Bethesda, is one of the most recognizable games from the American company, now owned by Microsoft. However, the history of its development is quite eventful. As you may know, Prey (2017), took its name from the original Prey (2006) developed by Human Head Studios. They are completely unrelated and the latest were marketed as a reimagining of the intellectual property set in a new narrative… yeah, we all knew this; however, what if I tell you that the use of the IP was an imposition by Bethesda?
During an interview on the AIAS Game Maker's Notebook podcast, Raphaël Colantonio, former director of Arkane, revealed more details about the lead-up to the launch of Prey in 2017 and the tense relationship there was with Bethesda since, originally, the title was not supposed to be called like that.
According to Colantonio, at some point in the development process, Bethesda approached the Arkane team to “suggest” the use of the Prey IP that now belonged to them, to adapt the project to their concept. Of course this suggestion ended up being an imposition says Colantonio, who assured that this made both him and the development team feel bad:
“I did not want to call this game Prey. And I had to say I wanted to anyway in front of journalists, […] “I hate to lie…It felt bad to support a message I did not want.”
An offense to the original developers?
Colantonio also noted that Bethesda's imposition not only seemed like a bad idea to him because he thought the IP was poorly perceived by gamers, it also made him feel embarrassed for the team at Human Head Studios that had developed the original game:
"It was like kicking them in the face. I wanted to apologize to them many, many times. I didn't really have a chance because I don't know those people. It was never our intention to ‘steal their IP’ and make it ours. It’s gross and that’s not what I wanted to do.”
There is more! The director said that he believed calling their game Prey was a “sales mistake” and oh boy! he was right, as the strategy “backfired” when Prey fans weren’t happy with the sudden “reboot” and the people who didn’t like the original didn’t even “look for [the] game.”
Of course, this was one of the reasons why Colantonio leave the studio back in 2017. He has since gone on to work with WolfEye Studios, which recently released Weird West.
Awful corporation decisions… What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
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