Arkane’s 2017 immersive sim Prey is a genuinely nice videogame, with a genuinely bizarre title—shared with a pre-existing shooter and a famously cancelled sequel that it has completely nothing to do with. Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio stated a number of years in the past that he actually didn’t wish to name it Prey, and it seems he was not alone on that: Former Bethesda advertising and communications boss Pete Hines stated in an interview with Dbltap that he was dead-set in opposition to it too.
“I positively pissed some folks off internally over that as a result of I fought so onerous in opposition to utilizing that title,” Hines stated. “I am the top of the spear, however I had lots of people throughout my group—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 known as Prey than we do speaking concerning the sport.”
The rationale for all that point spent explaining, as beforehand famous, is that the entire thing was so odd. Prey—the unique—was developed by Human Head Studios and launched in 2006, and it was fairly good. A sequel was deliberate, though it was extra of a derivative, following the adventures of a very completely different character in a very completely different setting: An important cinematic trailer set a bar that the deliberate sequel could not fairly clear, and it was finally scrapped.
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Years later, Bethesda determined to resurrect the title for a very unrelated venture, and thus among the best immsims of all time was hung with a needlessly complicated title. Explanations as to precisely why had been by no means completely convincing, and in line with Colantonio, the Arkane founder, no one on the studio wished it—and being pressured to make use of the title was a part of why he determined to depart Arkane only a couple months after Prey (2017) was launched.
Hines informed Dbltap he regrets shedding his battle in opposition to calling the sport Prey, however added that “no one on this planet may have put extra of 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 known as this and like, that’s wasted power. That’s wasted pleasure,” Hines stated. “We might be turning that into one thing optimistic.”
I positive do not disagree. I would not go as far as to say that recycling the Prey title was chargeable for its unlucky underperformance, however it certainly did not assist—and with the choice to name it actually anything on the desk, I’ll by no means perceive why Bethesda was so decided to keep it up. No matter that, although, it actually is an outstanding sport, and if you have not performed it but it is your fortunate day, as a result of it is at present on sale for 80% off—simply $6—on GOG.
This wasn’t the one attention-grabbing memory within the interview: Hines additionally shared some enjoyable recollections of the good Fallout 76 canvas bag debacle: “When the fuck did we add a canvas bag to this collector’s version?”
