It would seem that Prey 2 not only lives but remains in development at Human Head Studios. At least, that is if the newly surfaced Alien Noire countdown website is legit. If not, well, we can continue hoping and feeding the oil lamps atop our shrine to the intriguing space bounty hunter game.
Further details below.
The cryptic alien script countdown was spotted by NeoGaf user EatChildren, in the source code for the page which EatChildren found references to “Prey 2”, “Bethesda Softworks”, and”Human Head Studios”. It’s that last tag that stands out. Human Head were the developer originally attached to Prey 2, however, in 2011 they stopped working on the game following a contract dispute with Bethesda. Then, in August 2012 Bethesda pulled the plug on development.The license stayed with Bethesda following their decision to can the project and presumably the assets Human Head had so far completed. A further twist came in October when PC Gamer learned that Human Head were again working on the game, this was not confirmed by Bethesda.
Since the site was spotted the meta tag listing Human Head, Bethesda, and the game’s name, has been pulled. Though the site’s Whois page shows that it is registered to an organisation called The Collective, a group that exists in the lore of Prey 2.
It’s all very suspect. We’ll try and get some more clarification/confirmation before the countdown reaches its end on 1 March.