10 Video Games Cancelled Before Their Time

1. Prey 2

When we’re talking about Prey 2 we first need to be clear that this isn’t the fantastic and underrated 2017 FPS by Arkane that was published by Bethesda.

This was the sequel to the original Prey, a game that launched in 2006 headed up by Human Head Studios. Really didn’t mean to phrase it that way but here we are.

While Arkane’s take incorporated some elements of the originals such as the broad themes, it’s otherwise almost entirely unrelated. Sci-fi shooter Prey plopped you in an alien spaceship in the shoes of a Cherokee man called Domasi “Tommy” Tawodi who possessed the unique ability to revive himself and also separate his spirit from his body for short periods all in service of trying to fight the big bad, The Sphere.

The game allowed you to accumulate alien weapons, utilise portals to transport oneself to different areas, and solve environmental puzzles.

It should be noted that regardless of its various successes, Prey itself sat in development hell for 11 years as a result of technical problems, various key staffers leaving the project, and even an indefinite hold. Eventually the game was pulled together with a tiny 30 person team. Despite receiving overwhelming praise for its graphics and gameplay, not to mention proving to be a wild commercial success, the development of its planned sequel took an unfortunate turn.

Quickly after the game was determined to be a hit, development parent company 3D Realms confirmed Prey 2 was in development with an epic E3 2011 trailer to-boot.

The studio’s Scott Miller created a brand management group that was to oversee the sequel while Human Head still held the responsibility of its development. In 2009, however, Bethesda acquired the rights to Prey 2 and cancelled the project with Bethesda’s Pete Hines claiming the game was not up to their standard.

To add insult to injury, studio Human Head was also disbanded with much of the team migrating to another of Bethesda’s in-house studios.

Curiously, there may be more to the story as Bethesda had shafted Prey 2 off to both Obsidian and Arkane Austin before abandoning it entirely. Additionally, a Human Head employee later said that the game’s cancellation was “political” and “petty” and that it would have been a blast. So, big shame for us.