Arkane, Prey 2, System Shock, and Lies?
Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 11:59 pm
I'm really not sure what to make of this, but it ties into so many fascinating things that it feels like it's worth a mention here.
Rather than a wall of text, maybe the best way to sum up the recent strangeness is as follows:
But surely "no comment" would be better than deliberately misleading the gaming journalists who, in a way, are the voice of gamers?
[Edited to delete link to RPS.]
Rather than a wall of text, maybe the best way to sum up the recent strangeness is as follows:
- Arkane, headed by Raphael Colantonio, wants to make games like the ones Looking Glass made: Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Thief.
- Arkane, which was acquired by Zenimax (owner of Bethesda), made Dishonored.
- Unlike Bioshock: Infinite, Dishonored actually got some of the environmentally-emergent gameplay that make the Looking Glass games special.
- Zenimax recently acquired Human Head Studios, makers of Prey. (There is Reddit speculation on how this happened.)
- Numerous gaming journalists, including some at Rock Paper Shotgun, separately asked Pete Hines of Bethesda and Colantonio whether Arkane had been given the go-ahead to make Prey 2.
- Hines and Colantonio both directly said, "No," followed by the equivalent of "we don't know where such rumors come from."
- Internal emails from Arkane were leaked to Kotaku.
- One email gave the news that the Austin, TX, office of Arkane had been green-lit by Zenimax to reboot Prey 2.
- Arkane's Prey 2 would be some form of "spiritual successor to System Shock 3 [sic]."
- When Kotaku told Colantonio they knew about this email, Colantonio sent another email (also leaked to Kotaku) referring to "press sneak f**ks" and instructing Arkane teams members not to speak to the press about it.
But surely "no comment" would be better than deliberately misleading the gaming journalists who, in a way, are the voice of gamers?
[Edited to delete link to RPS.]