When Arkane Austin delivered its cult-classic immersive sim, Prey, for PC and consoles in 2017, not everybody at Bethesda Softworks was glad delivery the sci-fi immersive sim with that identify.
After Prey 2 met an premature demise in 2014, followers have been elated to see the collection return with a very new appear and feel with what was believed to be a reboot in 2016. The issue was Arkane’s Prey doesn’t even have a lot to do with the collection it pulled its identify from.
As an alternative, what followers acquired when Prey launched in 2017 was one thing that was extra of a System Shock religious successor, main many to query why it was ever named Prey in the first place. Even director Raphael Colantonio has commented on its title in the previous, saying that he needed to make use of a special identify however was finally pressured to keep it up.
Former Bethesda advertising and marketing boss Pete Hines, who introduced his retirement from the firm in 2023, spoke about the identify of Arkane’s now-beloved 2017 sport throughout a current interview with DBLTAP, saying that he was one particular person at Bethesda who feared the baggage that the Prey identify carried.
“Do not even get me began on that,” Hines mentioned when requested about Prey’s identify. “I undoubtedly pissed some folks off internally over that as a result of I fought so onerous in opposition to utilizing that identify. I am the head of the spear, however I had lots of people throughout my crew – model, PR and group – and we really feel like we’re burdening it with a reputation the place we spend extra time explaining why it is referred to as Prey than we do speaking about the sport.”
Hines provides that he regrets dropping the battle to present the 2017 Prey a contemporary begin. He provides, “However no one on this planet might have put extra of a great religion effort into altering minds on that.”
“My entire level was, look how a lot time we spend speaking about what the sport is versus why it is referred to as this and like, that’s wasted vitality,” Hines continued. “That’s wasted pleasure. We could possibly be turning that into one thing constructive.”
Prey is now seen as one among the higher immersive sims for extra causes than one, nevertheless it took a while for it to attain cult-classic standing. Along with the confusion surrounding its title, game-breaking points for PC gamers at launch helped tarnish its status out of the gate.
Bethesda finally issued quite a few fixes for these on that platform, however the injury had already been finished. Tech points virtually actually harm Prey’s industrial efficiency, with Colantonio believing that its unusual identify additionally contributed to misplaced gross sales.
We gave the 2017 Prey sport an 8/10 in our overview. At the time, we mentioned, “Prey’s house station is fantastically explorable and its shape-shifting enemies preserve pressure when fight does not.”
Michael Cripe is a contract author with IGN. He is greatest identified for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Make sure you give him a comply with on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).