Never played the original, from my understanding new Prey was nothing like it and was originally supposed to be something different. It's a phenomenal game that doesn't get enough attention, likely due to a lack of marketing and the confusing name that has people associating it with the original.
As another replied, yeah. It was a Quake 4/Doom 3 aesthetic game where you play as a Native american who gets abducted by aliens. You fight said aliens to save your GF and some on board Rebels from Earth/Another planet.
It was really fucking cool actually. You had gravity changers so you can be on the ceiling fighting aliens on the floor. And you had one section where you get shrunk and put on a shrunken planetoid and you get to see an alien look at you from outside the glass box you're in.
If you can find a copy or emulate it, do it. Give it a try. I will say though that dying is pretty much meaningless since every death you enter the spirit realm and do a thing and come back. Its weird but its cool.
And it was kinda like Quake in a way. The aliens act like the Strogg.
I loved waiting at the beginning and just listening to different songs on the radio. Still shocked that Clutch was on it. I was hooked from that point on.
> Quake 4/Doom 3
Q4, D3, and Prey were the big 3 games that used the D3 engine.
It's less aesthetic and more they all used identical engines, but identical engines do privide similar aesthetics, obviously.
Oh, final point, this is just a random thing to think about.
D3, Q4, and Prey *all* featured a character that the player character cared about being transformed into a bio-robot monster and fought as a boss.
Isn't that weird? What a random ultraspecific plot beat that all 3 games did.
Prey did the best job of the character the player cares about being transformed into a bio-robot boss, by a mile, but I won't spoil any more than that, even for a 20ish year old game.
That Prey boss is one of the most memorable moments in gaming history, even though you probably saw it coming a mile away.
Original prey was about aliens abducting an aboriginal American, and him using his connection to the spirit world to vanquish the aliens and save his girlfriend and grandfather.
I loved the original and have played through it countless times over the years. I was really looking forward to the sequel that they had announced. Unfortunately, that never happened.
I have given the new Prey multiple attempts and I get bored with it every time. Steam says I have 47 hours into it and I've never finished it.
The games are so different that basically the only thing they share is that they're both sci-fi themed fps and have the same name.
The first one was basically what Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to be but with a Native American theme/subplot. Very similar vibe and pacing.
Also fun fact, original Prey did the whole portals thing great a whole year before Portal. It had also lots of gravity puzzles/shaenanigans as well. Also it had amazing graphics for it's time and was crazily optimized, kinda like Half-Life 2.
[PREY (Original) Playthrough Part 1 - Butthole Doors, Portals, Shifting Gravity! HD 1080 60 fps - YouTub](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_0JaPIKeMY)
Eh, OG prey was definitely more pick up and play friendly.
New Prey is a mindfuck with some of the most interesting combat and enemies I've seen in a while.
I still love hunting down mimics, having them run into a room and having to find out what's out of place is one of the best moments in that game.
Agreed, I didn't really think what I said would be taken seriously because it's video game talk on the Internet. It's hard to express the right tone when dealing with Internet text i.e. was just a joke.
Different, but I loved original Prey, I'm kind of meh on the new one, but I haven't played it that much. Original Prey was one of my favorite games in that period.
Same. Loved the original. Don't care for the new one at all. I should. It ticks every feature that I love about games. Sci-fi, space, RPG, FPS. That should be an instant win for me but it just isn't.
I had the same problem. Immersive sims are not friendly experiences first time you play the game. It takes some time to understand how the multiple mechanics will make the situations interesting. In the beginning it feels like a poor shooter.
The new Prey needs a couple hours invested to show it’s potential, but once you learn how to capture enemy powers things get super engaging.
Yeah it took me a second playthrough to really get hooked.
I found getting invested more in the story/audiologs/computer emails helped a lot too as it's a pretty cool setting.
Old Prey was great. New Prey was meh. Couldn't get into it. Also should have been named it something else, had nothing to do with the old one - not even as a spiritual successor.
Man I loved original Prey. Hearing Clutch or Blue Oyster Cult on the radio in the bar at the beginning of the bar, I was hooked immediately. Loved the game so much. Never even bothered with the other installment since it wasn't a sequel.
3 never happened, battlefront 2 was the famous loot box story progression scandal and then Star Wars classic collection launched with only 3 (64 man) servers running for over 10,000 people trying to get on lol. Maybe not the most cursed but damn has it been bad
Gamers don’t really think about game sales unless it’s to say how greedy a company is. It’s been a bit weird hearing how great games these companies made…without them realizing they didn’t sell or get any engagement. No company is shutting down a profitable devision.
Hell most the people who talk about these great but niche games never played them in the first place and when they do it’s years after release on a 90% discount
I'm one of these--I only played Prey (2017) because it came to Game Pass. I remember seeing a trailer for it at launch but it made it look generic and uninteresting so I skipped it back then. Years later, though, because it was 'free on Game Pass', I gave it a shot finally and now I consider it one of the greatest videogames ever made. I ended up buying it and the DLC for only $10 total. Both the game and the DLC are phenomenal, but clearly the marketing department did a terrible job of capturing that. Even today after already knowing it's now one of my favorite videogames of all time, I sometimes go back and watch the original launch trailer for it and still think it makes the game look boring and uninteresting. I used to think marketing was overrated, but it's not.
All games should last forever with unending support and sales shouldn't matter. If I only get 10,000 hours out of a $60 game and it shuts down I have been personally robbed.
>All games should last forever
Most could with very little work on the dev/publishes part!
No need to make a strawman of a gamer that wants to continue to play what they paid for originally
How is any xbox game ever going to be profitable/hVe good sales while its on gamepass?
I’d put money in it that by the end of 2024 the Hellblade 2 devs alongside many others will also be shut down. Microsoft are idiots.
Starfield generated $235 million in sales and launched on Game Pass. Not saying that happens for every game, but the service is not a kiss of death for sales per se.
If the rumours of the game costing upwards of $400 million to make are true, then sorry but that’s still not profitable. And yeah as you said, you can’t really compare the next big RPG from Bethesda to Hellblade or hi Fi rush, for example.
Idk why I’m getting downvoted it’s just the truth, and we’ve been shown that with these studios being shut down.
Well they made money on GamePass plus made money selling the game. Your comment would need the combined profit and you’re not saying that. I don’t think we know how much they made tbh but it’s got to include both elements
You make a fair point regarding the development cost, but who can say if the game would have sold more if it hadn't been on the service? As for studios shutting down, we're seeing that all over. One of the huge problems today is that games cost so much and take so much time to develop that if they aren't overwhelmingly successful, it can tank the developer. Doubly so if there's a skittish publisher above them.
They get paid a portion of the subscription cost, they did this specifically so small indie devs will actually get some views on their game and when it goes off gamepass they have a sale on those games so if you enjoy it you can normally get it for like 50-70% off.
Microsoft buys up a bunch of companies and all of those companies manage to suck. Even the ones that were successful pre acquisition start sucking post acquisition. Is that a problem with Microsoft or the companies they bought?
Microsoft said they weren't going to meddle with the publishers. Most publishers seem to agree that Microsoft isn't getting in the way. Maybe having some outside management is actually helpful
They are definitely not hands off.
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/games/resources/productinclusion/product-inclusion-actions/help-customers-feel-seen/
It was criminally under marketed. It felt like all of 2017, I couldn't go ten minutes without seeing a Destiny 2 ad or seeing yet another review of Breath of the Wild, but I only heard of Prey through word of mouth.
Early on, yes. You are weak and will easily die. Once you have some upgrades you can play more aggressively. There's plenty of ammo to be found but you can also just recycle and craft more.
Yes, but that's not really the game's fault.
I bought and played Prey around launch. There was virtually no marketing around this game. I don't think I saw a single trailer for it. I bought it off name recognition alone, having played Dishonored (and not understanding at the time Arkane had multiple studios and these were in no way worked on by the same people).
I also wasn't aware of the previous Prey series. Only later learning Bethesda forced Arkane to adopt this name when it had little in common with the original franchise and was meant to be its own thing. The name also caused confusion with people who had heard of, but not played, the original as well as upset fans of the original who did not agree with Bethesda appropriating the name.
Review copies were also held until launch, which is often a red flag for gamers.
And Zenimax got into a trademark dispute with an indie developer releasing a game by the name of Prey for the Gods (renamed to Praey for the Gods), which had some people boycotting Prey in protest of this ridiculous abuse of copyright law.
Despite that the game was #2 in the UK, #5 in Japan, reviewed well, and went on to be nominated for multiple awards (and win one in Italy).
I'd say it did pretty damn well given that Zenimax/ Bethesda shot them in the foot at the starting line. Certainly not a "disaster", just below expectations, but wondering why they weren't in first place selling as well as Dishonored or other AAA releases at the time is insane.
This post puts sales at 1.3m which is a disaster for a major retail release by a publisher:
[Prey 2017 Sales : r/prey (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/prey/comments/7pjubb/prey_2017_sales/)
I don't think it was left to die by Zenimax, I think they were just done spending money on it
I'm not really going to argue over something as subjective as "terrible". Considering Dishonored 1 was like 3M and 2 was 2.5M I don't see 1.3M as being a "disaster" and I can't find any quotes calling it such but you're welcome to think that I suppose. I also wouldn't consider this a "major" release in the same way I would something like Fallout or Elder Scrolls.
Regardless, all my other points stand. I don't see how you can be "done spending money" on a project that hasn't been released. Marketing and getting early review copies out ahead of launch are crucial in this industry. You can't tell me not doing that had no effect on the sales figures.
Dishonoured 1 made a bit of money, Dishonoured 2 maybe broke even, Prey was a disaster
[AAA Games: A Comprehensive Guide | Gameopedia](https://www.gameopedia.com/comprehensive-guide-to-aaa-games/#:~:text=Studio%20size%20and%20whether%20they%E2%80%99ve%20made%20AAA%20titles,profitable%2C%20though%20this%20depends%20on%20their%20total%20budget.)
"**Higher threshold for success:** Ideally these games sell upward of 2\~ million copies to break even if not be profitable, though this depends on their total budget. When The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launched in 2015, it sold nine million units that year. In May 2020, the developing studio CD Projekt Red announced it had sold 50 million units in a [tweet](https://twitter.com/witchergame/status/1266057420557766657?s=20).
"
Again, not arguing this point as it has little relevance to my main point, being that the game was set up for failure and that its reception among critics and the public alike should be sufficient evidence of its potential.
Not every game is going to sell several million copies, although I firmly believe Prey could have performed better had it been promoted more in marketing and social media outreach via early review copies to notable streamers, like the overwhelming majority of games do.
Publishers can and should invest into smaller games and simply scale the budget accordingly.
Per your own source the measure of success is going to vary greatly depending on the budget and this is the type of game that can be build for significantly less than your Witchers and GTAs.
Prey 2017 really was good, but the issue is.... We had a prey on the 360 in 2006, and it wasn't great... When it was announced I thought it was either a remake or just related, and I wasn't that interested. It wasn't until it was heavily discounted/free that I played it and was blown away that I didn't pick it up sooner. Quantum break was similar in the sense that it was marketed poorly, but was actually a great game, and blew up more so after the discounts rolled in.
Prey on 360 was great too. It seems like they had the same issue with explaining a game then as they do with hellblade now
They don’t promote anything or explain anything or hype anything
Before the new Prey, it was going to be on a Sci Fi bounty hunter game. Looked neat, but was canceled. Then the new one came out, with nothing to do with the first game.
I loved this idea, remember reading about it in Game Informer I think. The turn toward sci-fi horror was cool, but I'm a big scaredy cat for horror games so I've still yet to beat it!
Ya I actually didn't mind the 2006 Prey. I initially completed it for the semi easy 1000gs but it wasn't bad, just poorly marketed, which led alot of people away from the 2017 prey
If I'm not mistaken, there were a bunch of prequels that did not really do great, but the sequel became a hit. If the game is great, it should still be worth investing, and just make a better advertisement for it
I'm still mad that we never got the original Prey 2. It was supposed to be like an absolute Bounty Hunter dream game. I still enjoyed the 2nd Prey game that we got for what it was. But man a game where the focus is bounty hunting through the galaxy just sounds enjoyable to me.
The E3 trailer for Prey 2 always got me excited. Then it got cancelled. Then Star Wars 1313 got announced…maybe I should just stop hoping for a cool dark bounty hunter game
See, my super power is any TV series I like gets prematurely canceled. My track record is over 50+ shows spanning the last 25+ years. Like it's creepy how I will be excited for a show and it would be canceled. My friends noticed it before I did because I'd post on Facebook if I was watching a new series and someone connected the dots. Now people tell me what shows I'm not allowed to watch. Lol
You are that to unreleased video games. You were probably also excited for Scalebound, Starcraft: Ghost, and Mega Man Legends 3. Lol
You don’t think it’s possible that someone opens up Twitter once a day and posts the word no?
It could be a bot. But to act like it’s a fact it’s pretty weird
I think its far more likely OP is some strange karma farming account.
For those downvoting me, be aware OP says it's been 7 years the guy has been counting.
The twitter account is from 2023.
Honestly just realized OP false information in the title. The twitter account is from 2023 so it's not been even counting that long.
I had assume it was made you know 7 years ago like OP made it sound like.
Edit: The assumption was made because posting nonstop for 7 years would 100% be a bot account.
A little over a year with missed days would point of course to a person.
This is actually tragic. Prey is one of those special games like Deus ex. Can't put my finger on it but it just exudes character in a way that many games are afraid to
The newer Prey was fun. I think it had one of the best Title/Into/credit scenes ever. Flying through the city with the credits on the buildings and signs.
And I thought it was pretty immersive. Feeling alone on the station. I liked it alot. It never made it main stream really but I recommend it to people who haven’t seen it.
The studio isn’t gone, just its sister location in Austin.
It was the B studio they closed, the OG that brought us Dishonoured is still going. No reason they couldn’t end up with the game in their hands, but it is unlikely as prey wasn’t a great sales success
Plus, who knows if that studio wasn't already going downhill. Gamers need to stop with this stupid allegiance attitude that develops because a studio puts out a few good games.
There are plenty who, made some cracking games before the quality eventually declined, or went straight off a cliff.
The redfall development was a disaster. According to schreier (higly trustworthy) austin lost 70% of their prey era staff. And the future picture was bleak, without a uphill battle to become the same studio again
I had hope that maybe ms would finance the reconstrucrion and maybe the brand name could attract talent again, but the doomers and gloomer that claimed that the studio was dead were right.
In part, the mourning of arkane austin began a year ago.
The blame, imo, goes to zenimax to force the stupid idea of redfall on process, ms to not just cancell it as soon that was on their table, and, unfortanetly as schreier implied on their article, a little to arkane directive to not ask the cancellation of the projext. I hope that harvey smith remains there, even if he was part of redfall is still a founder of the studio and made their great games.
However, after redfall i been doubting if games like prey or dishonored are even mainstrem enough to be rentable. The inmersive sim genre didnt last long in their original era and the new arkane ones didnt sell good enough. Dishonored 3 is in the list of potential interesting games by microsoft, but they seem to prefer arkane as an action game studio.
Now back to cry in my bed.
They could at least tried to rescue it, they have the resources.
The two smaller studios i think that they are being absorbed. At leadt roundhouse, iirc, was already a support studio, so comparavetly no much change.
For tango... ufff. I guess that not having a rentable game in years paid off badly, but it fit so well with the strategy, and they had so much talent and were so good. Maybe they are fulffiling the zenimax dream to transform it in a nameless gear of zenimax asia.
Just sad
The head of tango left to do his own thing. And none of Tango's games were that successful. Reviewed well, but didn't sell great. Even on ps, the platform where people apparently buy games lol
If they don’t believe in Redfall why dragging the production so far? Poor money management. Hi-fi rush was just a gimmick game and the studio was already in decline since the CEO left and took most of the team with him.
The Redfall thing is because Microsoft literally can't manage for shit, look at halo infinite lmao. They had a very hands off approach and since Bethesda forced Arkane Austin to develop Redfall since they wanted a piece of the live service gravy chain. When Microsoft brought Bethesda Arkane thought the game was gonna be hopefully canceled. But since Microsoft doesn't know what they are doing so they let development continue lmao.
Also even with the HI-FI rush Devs gone, they still have the Evil Within which is a highly regarded series of games and people liked Ghostwrire Tokyo.
If the studios have liberty to be creative they then need to be accountable when things didn’t go well. Redfall was a mess and was like what a year and no new dlc nothing? The Evil Within was probably not be made anyway not by a team that developed a small game. The knowledge had already left. And still the game can be made anyway…
People talking about OG Prey or the newer one, but no one talking about the OG Prey 2: [https://youtu.be/jfHCZAK7p-s?si=sR-\_BlOq8Fk\_F7NG](https://youtu.be/jfHCZAK7p-s?si=sR-_BlOq8Fk_F7NG)
No clue. My issues with all of this is like me we have no clue.
They could make a sequel. They could can it. They could have the team make Fallout 5 for all I know.
That game was mind blowing to me. Days after I finished it, I felt empty inside. It was such a rad game. Scary, fun, spacey. I never learned about it until it came on gamepass, and read that you have to play for 30min before anything happens.
Technically, they can keep going. A sequel has not been announced yet. Announcing that there won’t be a sequel doesn’t change that. Their mission statement is clear. There is no announcement of a sequel, so they can keep going.
Weren't the devs of Prey2017 required to use the Prey name because of corporate beauracracy demanding it, when the game they actually wanted to make was System Shock 3, similar to Dead Space but Dead Space devs went in a different direction due to RE4.
Also, the Prey2017 devs did a bang up job making a System Shock 3, IMHO.
This account was started on Jan 31st, 2023, so they haven't been counting for 7 years. Also could just be a bot updating.
On the other hand, [THIS GUY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0NL2Jn0nl0) has been doing DAILY Half-Life 3 updates for 6 years! On video. DAILY!
What's there to announce. Almost all the original creative people for the old games left during the vampire fiasco... its not the same studio anymore.
Zenimax messed it up with their jumping on the service wagon.
These things happen over and over. Sometimes the dev make their own studio and them you get things like path of exile which is way better than diablo for example.
There's still a chance. It's not like the entirety of Arkane had been shutdown, however I don't see it happening for at least a decade. After they finish the Blade game, I feel like they'll go back to Dishonoured -- which is kinda backed up by the leak of what was in Xbox's pipeline during the FTC ordeal.
The shutting down of Arkane Austin was probably the most odd closure out of all of them. I could understand Tango shouting down due to not only Shinji Mikami leaving but also the fact that their games don't really sell all that well.
Regardless, it's a shitty situation for the employees
Prey was absolutely my favorite game ever. And ive been gaming since the early 90s. It was the perfect immersive sim. Great environment's, crafting system, enemys, mechanics etc. The whole outer space/space station vibe was just perfect. Id do just about anything to be able to play it again for the first time lol.
Prey might be the most cursed franchise in gaming. Two installments a decade apart, both denied direct sequels.
Both very different games. Original Prey was best prey.
Never played the original, from my understanding new Prey was nothing like it and was originally supposed to be something different. It's a phenomenal game that doesn't get enough attention, likely due to a lack of marketing and the confusing name that has people associating it with the original.
As another replied, yeah. It was a Quake 4/Doom 3 aesthetic game where you play as a Native american who gets abducted by aliens. You fight said aliens to save your GF and some on board Rebels from Earth/Another planet. It was really fucking cool actually. You had gravity changers so you can be on the ceiling fighting aliens on the floor. And you had one section where you get shrunk and put on a shrunken planetoid and you get to see an alien look at you from outside the glass box you're in. If you can find a copy or emulate it, do it. Give it a try. I will say though that dying is pretty much meaningless since every death you enter the spirit realm and do a thing and come back. Its weird but its cool. And it was kinda like Quake in a way. The aliens act like the Strogg.
Man the intro is great though! Tough to beat Dont Fear the Reaper kicking on the juke box as all gravity goes to shit. What a scene! *chef kiss*
I loved waiting at the beginning and just listening to different songs on the radio. Still shocked that Clutch was on it. I was hooked from that point on.
> Quake 4/Doom 3 Q4, D3, and Prey were the big 3 games that used the D3 engine. It's less aesthetic and more they all used identical engines, but identical engines do privide similar aesthetics, obviously. Oh, final point, this is just a random thing to think about. D3, Q4, and Prey *all* featured a character that the player character cared about being transformed into a bio-robot monster and fought as a boss. Isn't that weird? What a random ultraspecific plot beat that all 3 games did. Prey did the best job of the character the player cares about being transformed into a bio-robot boss, by a mile, but I won't spoil any more than that, even for a 20ish year old game. That Prey boss is one of the most memorable moments in gaming history, even though you probably saw it coming a mile away.
Don’t forget about the wall sphincters
Goochie goochie
Don't forget you got to hear the legend himself Art Bell react to the alien invasion throughout the game
It was out there… #And I loved it Still have it on my SSD full of games. Haven’t played for a while though
Don't forget they did portals before Portal.
I think it available at Xbox.com and the dlc multiplayer character are free last time I checked.
Original prey was about aliens abducting an aboriginal American, and him using his connection to the spirit world to vanquish the aliens and save his girlfriend and grandfather.
I loved the original and have played through it countless times over the years. I was really looking forward to the sequel that they had announced. Unfortunately, that never happened. I have given the new Prey multiple attempts and I get bored with it every time. Steam says I have 47 hours into it and I've never finished it.
The games are so different that basically the only thing they share is that they're both sci-fi themed fps and have the same name. The first one was basically what Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to be but with a Native American theme/subplot. Very similar vibe and pacing. Also fun fact, original Prey did the whole portals thing great a whole year before Portal. It had also lots of gravity puzzles/shaenanigans as well. Also it had amazing graphics for it's time and was crazily optimized, kinda like Half-Life 2. [PREY (Original) Playthrough Part 1 - Butthole Doors, Portals, Shifting Gravity! HD 1080 60 fps - YouTub](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_0JaPIKeMY)
On release, people shit talked the game for legit NO REASON other than it not being Prey 2. Its reputation was soiled for no goos reason
Eh, OG prey was definitely more pick up and play friendly. New Prey is a mindfuck with some of the most interesting combat and enemies I've seen in a while. I still love hunting down mimics, having them run into a room and having to find out what's out of place is one of the best moments in that game.
The newer Prey wasn't even supposed to be Prey. They literally just slapped an old franchise name on a different new game.
Original was a masterpiece! Loved it
The og prey 2 cancellation is up there with 1313 and BF3 imo
Are you trolling? New Prey is one of the very best games ever made!
Its just an opinion dawg
Agreed, I didn't really think what I said would be taken seriously because it's video game talk on the Internet. It's hard to express the right tone when dealing with Internet text i.e. was just a joke.
Different, but I loved original Prey, I'm kind of meh on the new one, but I haven't played it that much. Original Prey was one of my favorite games in that period.
Same. Loved the original. Don't care for the new one at all. I should. It ticks every feature that I love about games. Sci-fi, space, RPG, FPS. That should be an instant win for me but it just isn't.
The new one focuses less on FPS mechanics and more on immersive sim mechanics.
I had the same problem. Immersive sims are not friendly experiences first time you play the game. It takes some time to understand how the multiple mechanics will make the situations interesting. In the beginning it feels like a poor shooter. The new Prey needs a couple hours invested to show it’s potential, but once you learn how to capture enemy powers things get super engaging.
Yeah it took me a second playthrough to really get hooked. I found getting invested more in the story/audiologs/computer emails helped a lot too as it's a pretty cool setting.
Old Prey was great. New Prey was meh. Couldn't get into it. Also should have been named it something else, had nothing to do with the old one - not even as a spiritual successor.
Well they're two different genres. 2006 is a action shooter, like Doom or Quake 2017 is an immersive sim like System Shock or Dishonored
100% agreed that it had no business being called Prey, should have been a completely unique/new IP.
Neuroshock is usually agreed upon to have been the best name by fans
If you like new Prey, you'll love System Shock!
Id tech 4 baby!
Man I loved original Prey. Hearing Clutch or Blue Oyster Cult on the radio in the bar at the beginning of the bar, I was hooked immediately. Loved the game so much. Never even bothered with the other installment since it wasn't a sequel.
Og prey? You mean 1997 build?
Meh og prey is mid
human head's game was a damn banger and I'm devastated.
Battlefront franchise would like to enter the chat for the most cursed lol
6 games including spin-offs doesn’t sound too cursed to me.
3 never happened, battlefront 2 was the famous loot box story progression scandal and then Star Wars classic collection launched with only 3 (64 man) servers running for over 10,000 people trying to get on lol. Maybe not the most cursed but damn has it been bad
The account only has 124 posts lol
Yea the guy who said 7 years didn't think before posting lol
The account also was started in January 2023
I loved Prey but it was a sales disaster, how are you going to convince any publisher that money invested in a Prey 2 is worthwhile?
Gamers don’t really think about game sales unless it’s to say how greedy a company is. It’s been a bit weird hearing how great games these companies made…without them realizing they didn’t sell or get any engagement. No company is shutting down a profitable devision.
Hell most the people who talk about these great but niche games never played them in the first place and when they do it’s years after release on a 90% discount
I'm one of these--I only played Prey (2017) because it came to Game Pass. I remember seeing a trailer for it at launch but it made it look generic and uninteresting so I skipped it back then. Years later, though, because it was 'free on Game Pass', I gave it a shot finally and now I consider it one of the greatest videogames ever made. I ended up buying it and the DLC for only $10 total. Both the game and the DLC are phenomenal, but clearly the marketing department did a terrible job of capturing that. Even today after already knowing it's now one of my favorite videogames of all time, I sometimes go back and watch the original launch trailer for it and still think it makes the game look boring and uninteresting. I used to think marketing was overrated, but it's not.
All games should last forever with unending support and sales shouldn't matter. If I only get 10,000 hours out of a $60 game and it shuts down I have been personally robbed.
And don’t forget sequels and remakes are terrible and are ruining the industry, unless it’s a sequel or remake I like.
>All games should last forever Most could with very little work on the dev/publishes part! No need to make a strawman of a gamer that wants to continue to play what they paid for originally
I hate how so many gamers support unrestrained capitalism except for when it flips on them. It’s inconsistent
What do you mean?
Yes, because we will have many games released in the socialist world. Do you know that they consider this an unnecessary bourgeois pastime?
Nice Strawman! But for real though this is bs and you know it...
No
Except valve
That's how it's always been. Most things online that are hyped for creativity have terrible sales.
How is any xbox game ever going to be profitable/hVe good sales while its on gamepass? I’d put money in it that by the end of 2024 the Hellblade 2 devs alongside many others will also be shut down. Microsoft are idiots.
Starfield generated $235 million in sales and launched on Game Pass. Not saying that happens for every game, but the service is not a kiss of death for sales per se.
If the rumours of the game costing upwards of $400 million to make are true, then sorry but that’s still not profitable. And yeah as you said, you can’t really compare the next big RPG from Bethesda to Hellblade or hi Fi rush, for example. Idk why I’m getting downvoted it’s just the truth, and we’ve been shown that with these studios being shut down.
Well they made money on GamePass plus made money selling the game. Your comment would need the combined profit and you’re not saying that. I don’t think we know how much they made tbh but it’s got to include both elements
If a company isn’t showing off how much money their big new games made and how successfal it was, it’s fairly safe to assume it wasn’t.
You make a fair point regarding the development cost, but who can say if the game would have sold more if it hadn't been on the service? As for studios shutting down, we're seeing that all over. One of the huge problems today is that games cost so much and take so much time to develop that if they aren't overwhelmingly successful, it can tank the developer. Doubly so if there's a skittish publisher above them.
They probably have good metrics on how games affect game pass subscribers
Ok sure, but as a lifelong gamer I feel like I know at least as much as the people who make these decisions. /s
They get paid a portion of the subscription cost, they did this specifically so small indie devs will actually get some views on their game and when it goes off gamepass they have a sale on those games so if you enjoy it you can normally get it for like 50-70% off.
This is like asking how Netflix makes money. Subscriptions are a different profit model
Don’t Netflix not make money? That was a fairly big news story not that long ago lmao
Microsoft buys up a bunch of companies and all of those companies manage to suck. Even the ones that were successful pre acquisition start sucking post acquisition. Is that a problem with Microsoft or the companies they bought?
Microsoft said they weren't going to meddle with the publishers. Most publishers seem to agree that Microsoft isn't getting in the way. Maybe having some outside management is actually helpful
They are definitely not hands off. https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/games/resources/productinclusion/product-inclusion-actions/help-customers-feel-seen/
Most were already in decline, which is why they agreed to be bought.
It's kind of wild, I found Prey to be my favorite game in the genre short of BioShock 1 & 2. I'm surprised it didn't sell very well.
It was criminally under marketed. It felt like all of 2017, I couldn't go ten minutes without seeing a Destiny 2 ad or seeing yet another review of Breath of the Wild, but I only heard of Prey through word of mouth.
Should one approach prey as a stealth game? I've tried brute forcing the game before and never had enough ammo lol
Early on, yes. You are weak and will easily die. Once you have some upgrades you can play more aggressively. There's plenty of ammo to be found but you can also just recycle and craft more.
Prey's combat, like all Arkane titles, blows chunks but this is a good thing as you can get creative with traps and the glue gun
Yes, but that's not really the game's fault. I bought and played Prey around launch. There was virtually no marketing around this game. I don't think I saw a single trailer for it. I bought it off name recognition alone, having played Dishonored (and not understanding at the time Arkane had multiple studios and these were in no way worked on by the same people). I also wasn't aware of the previous Prey series. Only later learning Bethesda forced Arkane to adopt this name when it had little in common with the original franchise and was meant to be its own thing. The name also caused confusion with people who had heard of, but not played, the original as well as upset fans of the original who did not agree with Bethesda appropriating the name. Review copies were also held until launch, which is often a red flag for gamers. And Zenimax got into a trademark dispute with an indie developer releasing a game by the name of Prey for the Gods (renamed to Praey for the Gods), which had some people boycotting Prey in protest of this ridiculous abuse of copyright law. Despite that the game was #2 in the UK, #5 in Japan, reviewed well, and went on to be nominated for multiple awards (and win one in Italy). I'd say it did pretty damn well given that Zenimax/ Bethesda shot them in the foot at the starting line. Certainly not a "disaster", just below expectations, but wondering why they weren't in first place selling as well as Dishonored or other AAA releases at the time is insane.
This post puts sales at 1.3m which is a disaster for a major retail release by a publisher: [Prey 2017 Sales : r/prey (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/prey/comments/7pjubb/prey_2017_sales/) I don't think it was left to die by Zenimax, I think they were just done spending money on it
I'm not really going to argue over something as subjective as "terrible". Considering Dishonored 1 was like 3M and 2 was 2.5M I don't see 1.3M as being a "disaster" and I can't find any quotes calling it such but you're welcome to think that I suppose. I also wouldn't consider this a "major" release in the same way I would something like Fallout or Elder Scrolls. Regardless, all my other points stand. I don't see how you can be "done spending money" on a project that hasn't been released. Marketing and getting early review copies out ahead of launch are crucial in this industry. You can't tell me not doing that had no effect on the sales figures.
Dishonoured 1 made a bit of money, Dishonoured 2 maybe broke even, Prey was a disaster [AAA Games: A Comprehensive Guide | Gameopedia](https://www.gameopedia.com/comprehensive-guide-to-aaa-games/#:~:text=Studio%20size%20and%20whether%20they%E2%80%99ve%20made%20AAA%20titles,profitable%2C%20though%20this%20depends%20on%20their%20total%20budget.) "**Higher threshold for success:** Ideally these games sell upward of 2\~ million copies to break even if not be profitable, though this depends on their total budget. When The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launched in 2015, it sold nine million units that year. In May 2020, the developing studio CD Projekt Red announced it had sold 50 million units in a [tweet](https://twitter.com/witchergame/status/1266057420557766657?s=20). "
Again, not arguing this point as it has little relevance to my main point, being that the game was set up for failure and that its reception among critics and the public alike should be sufficient evidence of its potential. Not every game is going to sell several million copies, although I firmly believe Prey could have performed better had it been promoted more in marketing and social media outreach via early review copies to notable streamers, like the overwhelming majority of games do. Publishers can and should invest into smaller games and simply scale the budget accordingly. Per your own source the measure of success is going to vary greatly depending on the budget and this is the type of game that can be build for significantly less than your Witchers and GTAs.
Prey 2017 really was good, but the issue is.... We had a prey on the 360 in 2006, and it wasn't great... When it was announced I thought it was either a remake or just related, and I wasn't that interested. It wasn't until it was heavily discounted/free that I played it and was blown away that I didn't pick it up sooner. Quantum break was similar in the sense that it was marketed poorly, but was actually a great game, and blew up more so after the discounts rolled in.
Prey on 360 was great too. It seems like they had the same issue with explaining a game then as they do with hellblade now They don’t promote anything or explain anything or hype anything
I really liked the 360 Prey too, the whole spirit realm and Native American theme combating alien technology was such a cool idea
Prey's name was owned by Take-Two and I think it still is. Who knows what they'll slap it on next!
Before the new Prey, it was going to be on a Sci Fi bounty hunter game. Looked neat, but was canceled. Then the new one came out, with nothing to do with the first game.
I loved this idea, remember reading about it in Game Informer I think. The turn toward sci-fi horror was cool, but I'm a big scaredy cat for horror games so I've still yet to beat it!
Mace Griffin bounty hunter vibes
I actually like the idea of it being completely different every time but hate how that’s being accomplished
Ya I actually didn't mind the 2006 Prey. I initially completed it for the semi easy 1000gs but it wasn't bad, just poorly marketed, which led alot of people away from the 2017 prey
Same. I played it cause it was all I had. I think the system had just come out or I had played everything else. Anyways I ended up loving it
If I'm not mistaken, there were a bunch of prequels that did not really do great, but the sequel became a hit. If the game is great, it should still be worth investing, and just make a better advertisement for it
Having trouble thinking of any though, most often a sequel gets greenlit because the spreadsheet shows a return on an investment
I understand why we don’t get a sequel. I also think it was mismanaged. Definitely could have been marketed better.
I'm still mad that we never got the original Prey 2. It was supposed to be like an absolute Bounty Hunter dream game. I still enjoyed the 2nd Prey game that we got for what it was. But man a game where the focus is bounty hunting through the galaxy just sounds enjoyable to me.
The E3 trailer for Prey 2 always got me excited. Then it got cancelled. Then Star Wars 1313 got announced…maybe I should just stop hoping for a cool dark bounty hunter game
See, my super power is any TV series I like gets prematurely canceled. My track record is over 50+ shows spanning the last 25+ years. Like it's creepy how I will be excited for a show and it would be canceled. My friends noticed it before I did because I'd post on Facebook if I was watching a new series and someone connected the dots. Now people tell me what shows I'm not allowed to watch. Lol You are that to unreleased video games. You were probably also excited for Scalebound, Starcraft: Ghost, and Mega Man Legends 3. Lol
You’re not wrong lol in that case I’m not excited for kotor remake. It needs all the faith in the world to still be released
Do people think an actual person does this? It's a bot made to post each day, all they most likely did was just alter it today.
You don’t think it’s possible that someone opens up Twitter once a day and posts the word no? It could be a bot. But to act like it’s a fact it’s pretty weird
I think its far more likely OP is some strange karma farming account. For those downvoting me, be aware OP says it's been 7 years the guy has been counting. The twitter account is from 2023.
Go outside
Huh? OP has 54k karma in 2 years. And if you’re talking about the Twitter guy… what? They don’t have karma lmao.
Nothing is real. Everything is fake. Might as well just throw in the towel now I guess lol. What's even the point anymore. /s
who cares about karma bro? go outside lmao
Then why are two days missing? Wouldn't a bot post every day?
Honestly just realized OP false information in the title. The twitter account is from 2023 so it's not been even counting that long. I had assume it was made you know 7 years ago like OP made it sound like. Edit: The assumption was made because posting nonstop for 7 years would 100% be a bot account. A little over a year with missed days would point of course to a person.
Do you have Snapchat streaks? What's so hard about making 1 tweet everyday?
This is actually tragic. Prey is one of those special games like Deus ex. Can't put my finger on it but it just exudes character in a way that many games are afraid to
The people who made this didn’t even work there anymore…
Right? Screaming for sequels these days is dumb unless the original creative team is still behind it.
This was also me for the evil within 3 :(
The newer Prey was fun. I think it had one of the best Title/Into/credit scenes ever. Flying through the city with the credits on the buildings and signs. And I thought it was pretty immersive. Feeling alone on the station. I liked it alot. It never made it main stream really but I recommend it to people who haven’t seen it.
tbf the account is created in 2023 Jan but yeah it’s sad
It's not over just because the Studio is gone.
The studio isn’t gone, just its sister location in Austin. It was the B studio they closed, the OG that brought us Dishonoured is still going. No reason they couldn’t end up with the game in their hands, but it is unlikely as prey wasn’t a great sales success
Plus, who knows if that studio wasn't already going downhill. Gamers need to stop with this stupid allegiance attitude that develops because a studio puts out a few good games. There are plenty who, made some cracking games before the quality eventually declined, or went straight off a cliff.
The redfall development was a disaster. According to schreier (higly trustworthy) austin lost 70% of their prey era staff. And the future picture was bleak, without a uphill battle to become the same studio again I had hope that maybe ms would finance the reconstrucrion and maybe the brand name could attract talent again, but the doomers and gloomer that claimed that the studio was dead were right. In part, the mourning of arkane austin began a year ago. The blame, imo, goes to zenimax to force the stupid idea of redfall on process, ms to not just cancell it as soon that was on their table, and, unfortanetly as schreier implied on their article, a little to arkane directive to not ask the cancellation of the projext. I hope that harvey smith remains there, even if he was part of redfall is still a founder of the studio and made their great games. However, after redfall i been doubting if games like prey or dishonored are even mainstrem enough to be rentable. The inmersive sim genre didnt last long in their original era and the new arkane ones didnt sell good enough. Dishonored 3 is in the list of potential interesting games by microsoft, but they seem to prefer arkane as an action game studio. Now back to cry in my bed.
So, yeah. I can understand pulling the plug on Redfall. Put Arkane out of their misery. But everything else getting laid off yesterday raised eyebrows
Tango was a dead studio. The CEO and team who made Hi-Fi left the studio almost a year ago.
They could at least tried to rescue it, they have the resources. The two smaller studios i think that they are being absorbed. At leadt roundhouse, iirc, was already a support studio, so comparavetly no much change. For tango... ufff. I guess that not having a rentable game in years paid off badly, but it fit so well with the strategy, and they had so much talent and were so good. Maybe they are fulffiling the zenimax dream to transform it in a nameless gear of zenimax asia. Just sad
Bro they were literally forced to make Redfall lmao. Hi-Fi rush was tango's last game and it was a banger, wtf you on.
The head of tango left to do his own thing. And none of Tango's games were that successful. Reviewed well, but didn't sell great. Even on ps, the platform where people apparently buy games lol
If they don’t believe in Redfall why dragging the production so far? Poor money management. Hi-fi rush was just a gimmick game and the studio was already in decline since the CEO left and took most of the team with him.
The Redfall thing is because Microsoft literally can't manage for shit, look at halo infinite lmao. They had a very hands off approach and since Bethesda forced Arkane Austin to develop Redfall since they wanted a piece of the live service gravy chain. When Microsoft brought Bethesda Arkane thought the game was gonna be hopefully canceled. But since Microsoft doesn't know what they are doing so they let development continue lmao. Also even with the HI-FI rush Devs gone, they still have the Evil Within which is a highly regarded series of games and people liked Ghostwrire Tokyo.
Redfall has nothing to do with Microsoft, it was already in the final stages when Microsoft bought Bethesda
If the studios have liberty to be creative they then need to be accountable when things didn’t go well. Redfall was a mess and was like what a year and no new dlc nothing? The Evil Within was probably not be made anyway not by a team that developed a small game. The knowledge had already left. And still the game can be made anyway…
People have lost their jobs and you’re here crying because people are being mean to Microsoft 😭😭
People gain or lose jobs every day.
This is not healthy behavior
HAHA I’ve been waiting for Prey 2 since xbox 360
Go outside
Yeah... Can't relate
Never forgive and never forget the original prey 2
People talking about OG Prey or the newer one, but no one talking about the OG Prey 2: [https://youtu.be/jfHCZAK7p-s?si=sR-\_BlOq8Fk\_F7NG](https://youtu.be/jfHCZAK7p-s?si=sR-_BlOq8Fk_F7NG)
To be fair the closing of that studio does not mean Prey is gone. Microsoft owns the IP?
Yeah but do you really think Microsoft is going to do anything with the IP? Their track record ain't looking too good.
No clue. My issues with all of this is like me we have no clue. They could make a sequel. They could can it. They could have the team make Fallout 5 for all I know.
I still want a sequel to the original Prey.
That game was mind blowing to me. Days after I finished it, I felt empty inside. It was such a rad game. Scary, fun, spacey. I never learned about it until it came on gamepass, and read that you have to play for 30min before anything happens.
Pfft 7 years is nothing while you're still waiting for Gordon Freeman to get out of that god damned hanger
Technically, they can keep going. A sequel has not been announced yet. Announcing that there won’t be a sequel doesn’t change that. Their mission statement is clear. There is no announcement of a sequel, so they can keep going.
I wish there was a prey 2 unless their pulling a dead island trick
Or gta
Perhaps Todd's vending machine will now go back to two buttons.
absolutely loved prey 2017
New prey is amazingly scary. It's sad it gets no love
Well, they still own the ip no ?
Prey (2017) turned out to be a really good game. I really enjoyed it.
Weren't the devs of Prey2017 required to use the Prey name because of corporate beauracracy demanding it, when the game they actually wanted to make was System Shock 3, similar to Dead Space but Dead Space devs went in a different direction due to RE4. Also, the Prey2017 devs did a bang up job making a System Shock 3, IMHO.
This account was started on Jan 31st, 2023, so they haven't been counting for 7 years. Also could just be a bot updating. On the other hand, [THIS GUY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0NL2Jn0nl0) has been doing DAILY Half-Life 3 updates for 6 years! On video. DAILY!
Preys end credits is where I found one of my fav songs. And was hyped for Prey 2 after the E3 trailer.
I mean, there could be a prey 2. It just won't be made by Arcane Austin.
If any game has ever deserved a sequel it was this. Absolute masterpiece IMO!
7 years those are fuckking amateur years of waiting, I’ve been waiting for Bully 2 for 15yrs
The native American Duke nukem or the dishonored dudes?
What's there to announce. Almost all the original creative people for the old games left during the vampire fiasco... its not the same studio anymore. Zenimax messed it up with their jumping on the service wagon. These things happen over and over. Sometimes the dev make their own studio and them you get things like path of exile which is way better than diablo for example.
That's some real dedication, RIP
It's dead, chief.
It’s not impossible that a Prey 2 will still be announced, Microsoft is still owning it
It was never going to be released
There's still a chance. It's not like the entirety of Arkane had been shutdown, however I don't see it happening for at least a decade. After they finish the Blade game, I feel like they'll go back to Dishonoured -- which is kinda backed up by the leak of what was in Xbox's pipeline during the FTC ordeal. The shutting down of Arkane Austin was probably the most odd closure out of all of them. I could understand Tango shouting down due to not only Shinji Mikami leaving but also the fact that their games don't really sell all that well. Regardless, it's a shitty situation for the employees
Essentialsfitstore.com [essentialsfitstore.com](https://essentialsfitstore.com)
I will do this for SoulCalibur 7.
The audacity
I’m still kinda salty about that bounty hunter looking version of the original Prey 2
2 times Prey has been made with praise, 2 times the sequel was asked and teased for, and 2 times the hopes of fans have been destroyed
Mental illness is sad.
That cancelled Prey game still pisses me off, that game would have been fucking amazing
My Xbox One x officially died so I guess I won't be playing it if it ever comes out 😐
Prey was absolutely my favorite game ever. And ive been gaming since the early 90s. It was the perfect immersive sim. Great environment's, crafting system, enemys, mechanics etc. The whole outer space/space station vibe was just perfect. Id do just about anything to be able to play it again for the first time lol.
The real tragedy is that it's actually been 6,511 days.
Kind of sad really, wasting so much time worrying about something like this.
Prey was okay. It was just okay. If you thought a sequel was coming then lol
Hey who knows, Microsoft might sell the IP to Ubisoft or Tencent
The game that makes you puke? Who even cares!? Lol
Give me Too Human 2: Rise of the Giants, ya bitches.
I'm so angry like, I don't even know what to do.
I do not like the new Prey at all. OG Prey was best Prey.
They didn't sell. I'm surprised it took this long
Prey was mid anyway.