Bethesda Confirms Development of Prey 2

Bethesda has just confirmed that Human Head Studios is currently working on a sequel to Prey that's expected to land on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC sometime in 2012. The confirmation follows reports of an upcoming article in the next issue of French gaming magazine Joystick which details the Prey sequel.

ZeniMax Media, parent company to Bethesda and id Software, bought the rights to the Prey IP in 2009. The franchise originally began at 3D Realms back in 1995 just before Duke Nukem 3D arrived on the scene, and promised an interesting concept called "portals." Seemingly plagued with the same roller coaster development issues endured by Duke Nukem Forever, work on Prey was eventually halted due to technical problems in 1999. Finally in 2001 Prey was handed over to Human Head Studios, thrown onto id Software's id Tech 4 engine, and released on the Xbox 360 and Windows PC in 2006.

According to Bethesda, Prey 2 is now arriving six years later. Unfortunately, little else is known about the game save for what's shown on the cover of Joystick. "Personne ne l'attendait ... mais ça va changer," reads the tagline, roughly translating into "no one expected it, but that will change." And even though 3D Realms announced that a sequel was coming just after the original's launch, Prey 2 really wasn't expected, as Prey raked in mediocre scores with the critics (84-percent on PC, 78-percent on Xbox 360). Even more, literally nothing else has said about the sequel up until now.

Monday Bethesda said that Prey 2 is being built on "the cutting edge id Tech engine from id Software," and we're assuming that it's referring to id Tech 5 which is powering RAGE and DOOM 4. "We are thrilled to be working with Bethesda on Prey 2," said Chris Rhinehart, project lead. "Prey 2 will provide gamers the opportunity to explore a new facet of the Prey universe, one that offers fast-paced action in an open, alien world. We're excited to show gamers the title we have been working on and hope they will be as excited by this title as we are."

Prey fans can continue to check http://facebook.com/prey2 for additional information on Prey 2 in the coming days. Additional information regarding Prey 2 will be revealed in the May issues of Official Xbox Magazine and PlayStation: The Official Magazine, as well as in magazines throughout Europe, Bethesda said.

Maybe long-time 3D Realms fans will get lucky and see some kind of brief tie-in between Prey 2 and Duke Nukem Forever? Doubt it.

UPDATE: Bethesda's Pete Hines had this to say about Prey 2: "It's worth clarifying that this Prey 2 is not what was announced before by anyone else," he said via Twitter. "This is the Prey 2 Human Head wanted to make."