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[SF Kosmo]

https://kotaku.com/prey-2017-2006-bethesda-imsim-name-arkane-colantonio-1849481519

On a podcast recently, Raph Colantonio, the founder of Arkane, talked about how he was forced to use the name Prey, how he feels that backfired, and how it made him feel gross.

“I did not want to call this game Prey. And I had to say I wanted to anyway in front of journalists,” he told AIAS in the podcast. “I hate to lie…It felt bad to support a message I did not want.” ... “Our game had nothing to do with Prey,” said Colantonio. “There is a bit of the artistic/creative side that is insulted when you tell [an] artist ‘You know your game? It’s going to be called Prey.’ And you go like, ‘I don’t think it should. I think it’s a mistake.’"

Now, some added context. Bethesda licensed the Prey IP from 3D Realms and partnered with Human Head, who had developed the first game, to develop the sequel. That project fell apart after Human Head refused and offer to buy the studio, and Bethesda unsuccessfully attempted to do a hostile takeover of the dev. The fallout from this was nasty and bitter, and the game was shelved years into development. Some more about that here, if you want.

Now, this part I have heard off the record, but Bethesda's license was contingent upon them producing a game with the IP, and Human Head was hoping that if they waited it out, 3D Realms might get the license back and Human Head could shop the project to other publishing partners. So in order to prevent that, Bethesda simply renamed an existing project they had in development in order to satisfy that clause. The move wasn't done because they thought it would help Arkane's game, it was done to fuck over Human Head and block the release of Prey 2.

Raph continues that he feels bad about any part he played in squatting the IP:

“I wanted to apologize to them many, many times,” said Colantonio. “I didn’t really have a chance because I don’t really 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.”

I'm glad we can put to rest the pretense that Prey (2017) was in any way ever meant to be a Prey game at all. It was always just IP squatting on the part of petty Bethesda leadership. Great game, but really rotten motives to use the name.

 

[SJRB]

Everyone who played the game knows it has literally nothing in common with the older game.

And fuck you, Bethesda. The whole Human Head situation was absolutely insane.

 

[winjer]

Bethesda has been making so many mistakes in the last decade, it's staggering.
What a mess of a company it has become.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Bethesda has been making so many mistakes in the last decade, it's staggering.
What a mess of a company it has become.

In fairness to present day Bethesda, I've always heard a lot of the petty legal maneuvering they were always known for was the fault of Robert Atlman, and he's since passed.

 

[crackajack]

Sounds like suits doing their thing.

The original game was only okayish and I haven't played the Arkane "reboot", can't remember what Prey2 should have been other than the trailer was quite good, but Prey is like Assassins Creed and Hitman (or Predator) a great name and hopefully becomes a game worth the name. Crysis eg. could have been labeled Prey and imho it would have matched well. At least I think the sort of Doom/Quake gameplay in Prey cause of its engine did not really have any Hunter/Prey/Predator feeling and that should be the selfexplaining premise due to the name.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Prey is a good name.

It's not a continuation. It's not a reboot. It has absolutely nothing to do with the first game. I understand why people were confused.

 

[Strider Highwind]

That sucks...but what a hell of a game, man I absolutely loved it.

 

[Wildebeest]

It is the John Carmack school of thinking that you just get the rights to a memorable one syllable name for a game, then just whack it on any game you are making. Carmack didn't think that story or world building in games was anything more than a necessary evil to set up the action.

 

[winjer]

It is the John Carmack school of thinking that you just get the rights to a memorable one syllable name for a game, then just whack it on any game you are making. Carmack didn't think that story or world building in games was anything more than a necessary evil to set up the action.

That's because Carmack was doing fast action FPS games. Not complex RPGs.

 

[SF Kosmo]

It is the John Carmack school of thinking that you just get the rights to a memorable one syllable name for a game, then just whack it on any game you are making. Carmack didn't think that story or world building in games was anything more than a necessary evil to set up the action.

It's not. No one thought that the Prey name would help Arkane's game. They just wanted to stop Human Head from releasing their game.

 

[VGEsoterica]

that game was as much Prey as I am six feet tall...which is to say very far from the actuality

 

[64bitmodels]

Carmack didn't think that story or world building in games was anything more than a necessary evil to set up the action.

He was right

 

[Northeastmonk]

I had some good vibes playing this game. If he tells us what the name should have been then we can start calling it that.

 

[ShadowNate]

I'm glad we can put to rest the pretense that Prey (2007) was in any way ever meant to be a Prey game at all. It was always just IP squatting on the part of petty Bethesda leadership. Great game, but really rotten motives to use the name.

New Prey was 2017 (phew I'm not that old).

 

[samoilaaa]

one of the best games ever made , i know alot of people didnt like the game because of the bugs but it had a really interesting story and the level design is top notch

 

[Pagusas]

I'm glad we can put to rest the pretense that Prey (2007) was in any way ever meant to be a Prey game at all. It was always just IP squatting on the part of petty Bethesda leadership. Great game, but really rotten motives to use the name.

What? The horrible Native American FPS alien invasion Prey game was 2006, the way over rated horror/FPS game with the forced title was 2017. Neither were great by any means, and the only Prey that ever looked interesting was the canceled bounty hunter game.

 

[Wildebeest]

I had some good vibes playing this game. If he tells us what the name should have been then we can start calling it that.

Originally they wanted to call it Metroid so start using that.

 

[Husky]

I still really fucking want Human Head's Prey 2.

 

[brian0057]

Let's call it by its true name:
System Shock 2.

 

[iorek21]

Whatever Prey 2017 should’ve been called, it is still a hell of a great game.

 

[01011001]

What? The horrible Native American FPS alien invasion Prey game was 2006, the way over rated horror/FPS game with the forced title was 2017. Neither were great by any means, and the only Prey that ever looked interesting was the canceled bounty hunter game.

 

[jaysius]

This game by any other name would have sold just as well.

Prey wasn't even a huge IP, the entire thing makes no sense, it must have washing of money or giving money to a friend at 3D Realms. You don't licences an IP to strip it of every single defining feature it has(except that it's FPS).

Fuck, now I remember that for a period of time there was a Prey 2(from the 2006 one) in the works and how much I want that now, but the original Prey was "problematic" for 2020's because it featured a Native American, you can't just do that anymore without checking with every single group under the sun if what they're doing is "ok".

 

[AJUMP23]

I want to know what he wanted to name the game.

 

[deathsaber]

In a way it did fuck the game. I certainly kind of ignored the project during its retail prime- I saw "Prey" and had same vague vision of an earlier defunct 2000's era pc shooter, that I assumed this was some revival of that game (which I wasn't remotely interested in back then), and largely ignored everything to do with it.

Had I known the project was completely unrelated to the previous game, and basically the best modern revival of System Shock/Bioshock and other such atmospheric first person shooter/rpg/adventure games that are absolutely right up my alley- it would have gotten day 1 support. Instead, I checked the game out like 4 years late well after it flopped commercially on Gamepass. And I know I'm not alone here.

 

[Mossybrew]

I totally forgot there was an original Prey.

 

[Bartski]

they already spoke about it at length in the Noclip documentary a year ago

 

[SF Kosmo]

What? The horrible Native American FPS alien invasion Prey game was 2006, the way over rated horror/FPS game with the forced title was 2017. Neither were great by any means, and the only Prey that ever looked interesting was the canceled bounty hunter game.

Typo, I meant 2017. But that's my point, the naming of Prey 2017 was done to kill Prey 2.

 

[Diseased Yak]

I bet he originally wanted to call it "Mimic Goo Attacks!".

 

[JayK47]

Interesting. I was not aware of this. Prey was a great game and my favorite Arkane game.

 

[MALpractice311]

This game by any other name would have sold just as well

This is the big issue here no one else is talking about. I think people online really over estimate the value of Prey name and any confusion is may have caused among mainstream audiences.

Prey 2017 was never going to sell well regardless of its name because...

(1) Immersive sims don't sell well.
(2) Arkane games don't sell well.
(3) New IPs don't sell well and, yes, I do classify Prey 2017 as a new IP because very few people in the mainstream have any knowledge of Prey 2006.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Typo, I meant 2017. But that's my point, the naming of Prey 2017 was done to kill Prey 2.

Well, it's obviously they're wiping Prey (2006) from existence completely which is why it was pulled and no longer exists on Steam or anywhere else.

That game was absolutely amazing and it's an absolute travesty what Bethesda have done. They really want to pretend the 2006 never existed at all.

 

[Big Baller]

Learned something new today

 

[Shut0wen]

I still find it confusing, i remember hearing a year before the human head game was cancelled (which was about 4-5 years before prey released) that arkane was working on a prey game, he obviously got telt it was gunna be called prey for along time before it shipped

 

[Hudo]

Prey 2017 is the closest we ever got to a System Shock 3

 

[K' Dash]

Meh, that thing wouldn’t sell better with a different name.

The game was good, not great, I dropped it near the end when they forced a fetch quest on me, I was tired of it already.

 

[violence]

Well, if it sells 6 extra copies by naming it prey, the corpos are gonna do it

 

[ResilientBanana]

Crazy how shitty and drama-filled the games industry is. The name never mattered, just make a good game.

 

[Wildebeest]

Crazy how shitty and drama-filled the games industry is. The name never mattered, just make a good game.

Sadly, in reality, game journalists and buyers care a whole lot what a game is called, and the story of the brand and how other popular games in the genre did things, and care very little if a game is good or not.

 

[diffusionx]

The way Bethesda screwed over Human Head is just brutal, and years later, what have they gotten out of it? Nothing basically while people still talk about the cancelled Prey 2.

 

[clarky]

Sadly, in reality, game journalists and buyers care a whole lot what a game is called, and the story of the brand and how other popular games in the genre did things, and care very little if a game is good or not.

What?

 

[EverydayBeast]

Discovering Talos for the first time is great. There's a ton of reasons to play Prey 2017 but yeah it shouldn’t have been named Prey and Xbox One should have been 720.

 

[Alebrije]

I had some good vibes playing this game. If he tells us what the name should have been then we can start calling it that.

It should be called "Pray"

 

[Wildebeest]

What?

Most game players are not out there hunting hidden gems. They will buy the same thing every year and moan about it, but they will still buy and just say everything else is trash, not even worth looking at.

 

[clarky]

Most game players are not out there hunting hidden gems. They will buy the same thing every year and moan about it, but they will still buy and just say everything else is trash, not even worth looking at.

If its hidden then thats the publishers fault, not COD or FIFA's

 

[MALpractice311]

Meh, that thing wouldn’t sell better with a different name.

The game was good, not great, I dropped it near the end when they forced a fetch quest on me, I was tired of it already.

Bingo. Whether it used the name Prey or not (or the rumored PsychoShock, which is a terrible name by the way), it never had a chance.

As big as a fan as I am of immersive sims, even I acknowledge they have limited mainstream appeal, outside of a few exceptions (namely Bioshock). They just require too much thinking of the average mainstream player who just wants to pop in something simple and familiar like your typical open world GTA/Ubisoft games where you have clearly identified goals and quest markers and simply drive, shoot, and repeat.

 

[Wildebeest]

If its hidden then thats the publishers fault, not COD or FIFA's

Yeah, and I'm telling you, if Bethesda as a publisher wanted it to sell, they would have used an even dumber name and called it something like "Fallout: Aliens" and made up some story about how Arkane Austin have always been such huge Fallout fans and that Fallout: Aliens expands the lore canon of the Fallout universe, and really it has so much Fallout DNA you wouldn't believe it.

 

[clarky]

Yeah, and I'm telling you, if Bethesda as a publisher wanted it to sell, they would have used an even dumber name and called it something like "Fallout: Aliens" and made up some story about how Arkane Austin have always been such huge Fallout fans and that Fallout: Aliens expands the lore canon of the Fallout universe, and really it has so much Fallout DNA you wouldn't believe it.

So we agree then?

 

[K' Dash]

Bingo. Whether it used the name Prey or not (or the rumored PsychoShock, which is a terrible name by the way), it never had a chance.

As big as a fan as I am of immersive sims, even I acknowledge they have limited mainstream appeal, outside of a few exceptions (namely Bioshock). They just require too much thinking of the average mainstream player who just wants to pop in something simple and familiar like your typical open world GTA/Ubisoft games where you have clearly identified goals and quest markers and simply drive, shoot, and repeat.

The game should have been shorter, towards the end it was adding this bunch of stupid quests, it was obvious they were padding the game.

 

[hyperbertha]

Everyone who played the game knows it has literally nothing in common with the older game.

And fuck you, Bethesda. The whole Human Head situation was absolutely insane.

It does have a lot in common to be fair. Aliens. Space setting. Blue color scheme. Low gravity levels. This is why Bethesda felt comfortable using the name.

 

[Crayon]

Should have called it quake 5.