Dishonored devs Arkane have promised that their next title, sci-fi immersive sim Prey, will run perfectly on PC from launch. Their last game, Dishonored 2, was excellent, but was spoiled for a worrying number of PC players thanks to various technical issues.
Pumped for 2017’s next big immersive sim? Here’s everything we know about Prey so far.
In an interview with Game Informer, Arkane’s co-creative director Rafael Colantonio acknowledges those problems. “We had a rough launch on the PC,” he says. “In development you never exactly know what you’re going to see, most of all with PC because there are so many different configurations and stuff. Unfortunately, it’s what it is, it shipped, then it got patched, and now it runs really well. So of course, we are paying double attention to making sure that this time, the PC version is really flawless when we ship.”
Asked how they plan to achieve this, Colantonio said the Prey team have scheduled “a little bit” more time for testing. “Also it’s a different engine, so the constraints are different. In the case of Dishonored, we created a new engine, really, even though it’s based on idTech, most of it has been redone… In the case of Prey we’re using the CryEngine, so it’s an engine that has already shipped things before. So it’s not the same configuration. Nevertheless, we are of course aware of [PC issues] now, and were back then already, but it caught us by surprise a little. This time we’re paying more attention for sure.”
Check out the interview above for more. The question about Dishonored 2’s launch PC launch begins at 28:42.
Once planned as a sequel to 2006’s shooter of the same name, Prey has emerged from several years in development hell as a reimagining of the original’s premise: a space station has been overrun by aliens, and you must use guns, customisable alien powers and smart story choices to survive. Fans of System Shock-style immersive sims should keep an eye on the first half of this year for its release.