Prey 2 is officially dead, Jim
"It wasn't up to our quality standard and we decided to cancel it."
Prey 2 is dead, and not in the fun undead Halloween sort of way or like Spock between Star Treks 2 and 3, but like really dead ala half the cast of Game of Thrones.
"It wasn't up to our quality standard and we decided to cancel it. It's no longer in development," said vice president of Bethesda Pete Hines in an interview with CNET. "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."
"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 noted.
This isn't a huge surprise given how long Bethesda has remained mum about it. Last we checked it had been taken from the studio Human Head, who whipped up an impressive showing for it at E3 2011.
In April 2012 Bethesda stated that "development of Prey 2 has not been cancelled," but rather that it wouldn't be released in 2012 as was the initial plan. Rumours circulated that Dishonoured developer Arkane was working on it at its new Austin branch for a presumed 2016 release and an ex-Human Head developer was adamant that "It was a lot more than a demo."
"Prey 2 was a full game. And a crazy fun one. The team was small but you wouldn't have known it," said former narrative designer Jason Blair. "What happened to Prey 2, from where I sat, was political. And petty. And potentially litigable [sic]. Human Head had a great game."