Prey 2 not being developed by Arkane, claim Bethesda

In typical sci-fi fashion, Prey 2 has been through more than a few plot twists. It was dead , then it wasn't , then it was in suspended animation . There was talk of political machinations , of failed expectations , and - most surprisingly - of a developer switch , with the game rumoured to be in the hands of Dishonored developers Arkane. Now, in an interview with RPS , Bethesda's Pete Hines has helped separate fact from fiction.

"All of that stuff, I have no idea where it came from," Hines said, of the rumour that Arkane were now developing Prey 2. "The Human Head Prey 2 thing is the Human Head Prey 2 thing. Arkane is over here, and they're doing their thing, and that's for them to work on. We'll be ready to talk about what they're working on when it gets closer to release."

So what is the status of the "Human Head Prey 2 thing"? Hines says that while it definitely isn't dead, it also "wasn't where it needed to be."

"It wasn't meeting expectations that we had and – in some respects – Human Head had. We're not just gonna proceed with a plan of putting this thing out until that gets addressed in a way that we feel like will be worth all this time and attention."

"We could ship it and put it in a box and be done with it, but it won't meet anybody's expectations. Not ours, not yours, not the consumer's. It'd just be like, 'What happened to this?' Well, that's what we would like to know. It's not fun to make a call to pull back the reins on something like that and say it's not coming out this year. It's certainly not an easy decision, especially after you spent years and millions and millions of dollars creating it."

Asked whether Prey 2 still resembles what we were originally shown, Hines was less forthcoming with information. "It probably doesn't help me to define that any further. The reason that it got delayed the way it did is because it was not hitting the quality bar that it was supposed to and needed to. That was ultimately the problem. It had nothing to do with what it was trying to do. It just didn't hit the quality bar. It's kind of like Wolfenstein, which is getting delayed to next year because it's showing promise, but it needs more time and polish to hit the quality bar we expect. Prey 2 is not the first time that we've moved something because of that. It's gonna come down to quality."

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.