Dishonored studio Arkane Austin is reportedly handling development of the long-delayed Prey 2, according to an unnamed source speaking to Kotaku. The word is that the studio scrapped all of the work previously done on the game and started over, with a release now targeted for 2016.
Bethesda forced Arkane Austin to take over on Prey 2 against its will, the source revealed. Those in charge supposedly told dissenters at the studio to just treat it like a new System Shock game – the spiritual predecessor to BioShock and inspiration for Dishonored – and forget that it’s even called Prey 2. It sounds like Dishonored co-director Harvey Smith won’t be involved, however. The tipster suggests that Smith recently moved to Arkane’s other studio in Lyon, France, which is working on a different game.
Prey 2 began life at developer Human Head and enjoyed a well-received debut at E3 2011, but it was delayed for an unspecified amount of time in 2012. Since then, Fallout developers Obsidian reportedly worked on the game for a few months. Bethesda also tried to get Rogue Warrior studio Rebellion to take over at one point as well, it seems.
Read Kotaku’s full article for a lot more details, and keep in mind that none of this has been confirmed in any official capacity.