When Arkane Austin delivered its cult-classic immersive sim, Prey, for PC and consoles in 2017, not everyone at Bethesda Softworks was happy shipping the sci-fi immersive sim with that name.
After Prey 2 met an untimely demise in 2014, fans were elated to see the series return with a completely new look and feel with what was believed to be a reboot in 2016. The problem was Arkane’s Prey doesn’t actually have much to do with the series it pulled its name from.
Instead, what fans received when Prey launched in 2017 was something that was more of a System Shock spiritual successor, leading many to question why it was ever named Prey in the first place. Even director Raphael Colantonio has commented on its title in the past, saying that he wanted to use a different name but was eventually forced to stick with it.
Former Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines, who announced his retirement from the company in 2023, spoke about the name of Arkane’s now-beloved 2017 game during a recent interview with DBLTAP, saying that he was one individual at Bethesda who feared the baggage that the Prey name carried.
“Don’t even get me started on that,” Hines said when asked about Prey’s name. “I definitely pissed some people off internally over that because I fought so hard against using that name. I’m the head of the spear, but I had a lot of people across my team – brand, PR and community – and we feel like we’re burdening it with a name where we spend more time explaining why it’s called Prey than we do talking about the game.”
Hines adds that he regrets losing the battle to give the 2017 Prey a fresh start. He adds, “But nobody on this planet could have put more of a good faith effort into changing minds on that.”
“My whole point was, look how much time we spend talking about what the game is versus why it’s called this and like, that is wasted energy,” Hines continued. “That is wasted excitement. We could be turning that into something positive.”
Prey is now seen as one of the better immersive sims for more reasons than one, but it took some time for it to achieve cult-classic status. In addition to the confusion surrounding its title, game-breaking issues for PC players at launch helped tarnish its reputation out of the gate.
Bethesda eventually issued numerous fixes for those on that platform, but the damage had already been done. Tech issues almost certainly hurt Prey’s commercial performance, with Colantonio believing that its strange name also contributed to lost sales.
We gave the 2017 Prey game an 8/10 in our review. At the time, we said, “Prey’s space station is fantastically explorable and its shape-shifting enemies maintain tension when combat doesn’t.”
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
