[UPDATE] Prey 2 Officially Announced

In 2006, I bought a game. In fact, I bought a collector's edition game. Developed by Human Head Studios and instigated by 3D-Realms, the company who spent all their time on Duke Nukem Forever, Prey was an interesting take on the standard first person shooter. The game told the story of Tommy, a Native American fella who is abducted by aliens who traveled to earth to reap the rewards of all organic life. Aboard the ship, he sets out to save his girlfriend and stop this alien race from destroying the earth. It sounded pretty typical on paper but it was the mind-bending gravity and portal mechanics that drew my attention. It also touched on some interesting story arcs like Tommy's constant attempt to resist his Native American heritage and the revelations that he ultimately has thanks to this other worldly experience. All of this worked really well together to create a really unique atmosphere and give the game a life of its own in a time when shooters were everywhere.

Ironically, despite not being developed by 3D-Realms directly, Prey suffered from a painfully long development cycle, having been in development in some form since 1997. The game finally released on the PC and XBox 360 in 2006 under the 2K games banner and garnered a positive critical reception despite it's short length (I finished the game in 4-5 hours). Now, nearly 5 years later, it looks like we may be on the verge of an official announcement of a sequel. Kotaku ran a story yesterday posting the following cover for the next issue of the french gaming magazine, Joystick:

While a sequel was certainly hinted at in the original Prey, the length of time since the release and the transition of rights from 2K to Bethesda softworks had me wondering if a sequel would ever be made. It turns out, Bethesda Softworks has been working really hard to establish themselves as a major publishing powerhouse since the release of Elder Scrolls IV a few years back. While Bethesda is a name that is strongly associated with RPG's thanks to the success of Elder Scrolls and Fallout, that hasn't stopped them from picking up the publishing rights for major action shooters like WET, Rage, and Brink.

After being acquired by Bethesda parent company, Zenimax, in 2009, Id software, the high profile team behind such titles as Doom and Wolfenstein has now handed over the publishing rights for it's title to Bethesda. Now, Bethesda will not only be publishing the highly anticipated open-world shooter, Rage, and Doom 4, It will now be adding another high profile shooting IP to it's repertoire in the form of Prey 2. I personally can't wait to see what advancements will be made and what will be changed to ensure that Prey becomes a successful and profitable IP for Bethesda. Let's just hope the game has more to show for it's years in limbo than a 4 hour campaign.

[UPDATE] - Bethesda's email went out this morning making Prey 2 an official thing. Human Head Studios is confirmed to once again be working on the series.  Prey 2 is set to make it's return to consoles in 2012.

[SOURCE: Kotaku]