ZeniMax says Prey 2 wasn't up to expectations

The long awaited sequel to Human Head Studios' Prey is in development for an indefinite period because it wasn't up to the quality Bethesda and its parent company ZeniMax Media was expecting, vice president Peter Hines told Polygon at E3.

"The reason why we are where we are is because the game is not up to the standards and to the expectations that we all agreed to," Hines said, stating that Bethesda's official statement on the game hasn't changed since last year, which the company is "obviously disappointed and unhappy about."

"It was a project that we put time and money and effort into, and spent millions of dollars and a lot of blood and sweat working with the team to make a great game," he said. "And it was not in our collective estimation where it needed to be and so I don't have an update beyond that and there is nothing else that I can say."

"The reason why we are where we are is because the game is not up to the standards, to the expectations that we all agreed to."

The heavily anticipated title was originally in development by Human Head Studios. Last April, unconfirmed reports said that Prey 2 had been cancelled by Bethesda, who quickly brushed aside the rumours. And in March, Kotaku and a Prey 2 fansite mentioned that development had shifted to Dishonored's Arkane Studios. Last month, former Human Head Studios narrative designer Jason Blair tweeted to address rumours about Prey 2's development claiming the game was in "limbo" for "political" reasons. At the time of writing, Bethesda has not confirmed which studio is working on it.

"It's that some folks sort of commented or put their own own spin on the situation and the bottom line is it is about the game and the quality of the game," Hines said. "It's simply not something that we are not willing to compromise or bend on. It has nothing to do with anything else. It is simply that and only that. How good is the game and how good is the quality of the game."

According to Hines, those who want to know about Arkane's next project "are going to be waiting for a significant amount of time."

"Those who want to know about Arkane's next project "are going to be waiting for a significant amount of time."

Hines made it clear that the company doesn't like to announce anything without playable code. "We don't just say 'oh, here is what they are doing.' Like, no. Here is what they are doing. Here's the demo. Here's the gameplay. We put the controller in your hand, like we did with Wolfenstein. We could have talked about Wolfenstein years ago if we wanted to. We prefer to be able to show it, like here it is, here is the controller. Play it. You can totally get what it is. "