I love Arkane’s immersive sim Prey 2017 (opens in new tab) much, even more than I liked Human Head’s 2006 FPS of the same name. (Which, for the record, I also really liked.) But I was always flabbergasted by the decision to reuse the title. Developer Arkane was explicit that the game was not a sequel or remake and “had no affiliation with the original”. (opens in new tab),” and it’s not that the 2006 game was such a huge success that it had unalterable PR value.
It was actually a pretty widespread point of confusion, and not just among gamers, but Arkane as well. Studio founder Raphael Colantonio, who is Arkane . left, (opens in new tab) in 2017, in a recent interview with the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, Bethesda’s insistence on using the name was “very, very hurtful” and eventually convinced him it was time to go.
“I didn’t want to call this game Prey,” Colantonio said. “I had to say I wanted it for journalists anyway, which is not my pleasure. I hate to lie. And those are sales lies, it’s not like a personal lie or anything, but it still felt bad that I had to support a post I didn’t want Not only me but no one on the team wanted to call this game Prey Our game had nothing to do with Prey.
“I’m grateful that a company will give me the resources to make a game and trust my prowess with so many millions of dollars, I’m grateful for that — but there’s a bit of the artistic, creative side that’s offended when you say to this artist, “Your game is going to be called Prey.” You go like I don’t think it should, I think it’s a mistake It’s a sales mistake because we’re going to have the adverse effects of the [original Prey fans]these won’t be happy, then those who didn’t like Prey won’t even look for our game, they won’t find our game.”
“So that was part of, ah, I have to go now, because I don’t have control of my own boat right now.”
Colantonio also called the decision “a kick in the face” from the developers of the original game and said he often wanted to apologize to the team for doing it. “It was never our intention to steal their IP and make it ours,” he said. “I was like, it’s disgusting, that’s not what I wanted to do. And so everyone lost. And the sales were terrible, by the way, from Prey. It wasn’t a good decision.”
It was also a kick in the face for fans of the original who were looking forward to a good sequel. Bethesda even announced one in 2011 with a really cool movie trailer, but pulled the plug a few years later, saying it “didn’t live up to our quality standard.” Interest in the canceled sequel, however, has continued in the years since, reflecting a genuine enthusiasm for what could have been.
Arkane’s Prey didn’t sell well despite being an excellent immersive sim, and the confusion surrounding the title and connection to the original game (or lack thereof) certainly didn’t help. But in an interview with MinnMax in 2021, Colantonio reflected on other marketing challenges the game faces, and immersive sims in general, which despite being widely regarded as cornerstone games remain a relatively niche interest.
“I think we’ve done a great job selling this game to people who would naturally like this game,” he said. “It’s almost like ‘inside baseball.’ If you look at it and you know what immersive sims you totally see, and you know you’re going to love it. But I don’t think as a company — and I’m talking about between Bethesda and Arkane – I don’t think we did a good job of really selling it to a larger number of people.”
“For example, if you’ve never had great oysters, it’s very hard to sell that to someone. I could sell great oysters to someone who’s had them because you know what’s special about them, but otherwise people will leave “well that’s like a clam to me.”
But also in that interview he was critical about the choice of title. “The choice of name was clearly a mistake,” he said. “Because I think it turned down the fans of the original. It also turned down those who didn’t like the original. Because why would they play Prey 2 if they didn’t like the original? So that was kind of weird.”
Interestingly, since Colantonio’s departure, Arkane has moved away from immersive sims and released more accessible (but less interesting) games like Wolfenstein: Youngblood (opens in new tab)death loop (opens in new tab)and Redfall (opens in new tab) (which will actually only be released in 2023, so there are no reviews on that for the time being), Colantonio has embraced the form (opens in new tab) from a completely different perspective with Weird West (opens in new tab), with largely successful results. Weird West’s 1.04 patch is expected to go live in September (opens in new tab).
Thank you Eurogamer (opens in new tab).
0 Comments