Prey 2 is officially cancelled
"We never felt that it got to where it needed to be - we never saw a path to success if we finished it"
Bethesda has finally cleared the air over Human Head's Prey 2, confirming that the game is no longer in development.
Speaking to CNET at PAX Australia, Bethesda's VP of marketing Pete Hines said that few would be surprised at the news, given how little Prey 2 has been discussed by the company through official channels.
"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," he said.
"It wasn't up to our quality standard and we decided to cancel it. It's no longer in development... It's a franchise we still believe we can do something with - we just need to see what that something is."
Prey 2 was announced all the way back in March 2011, and the health of the project has been in question pretty much ever since - the subject of rumour and speculation, but little in the way of reassurance from Bethesda.
In April 2012, Bethesda pushed its release date into 2013 due to concerns over quality. In August 2013, however, internal emails from Arkane Studios suggested that the Dishonored developer was attempting an entirely new version of the game. The pitch, from Arkane's Austin studio, described it as "a spiritual successor to System Shock 2."
An intriguing notion, but to no avail.