Prey 2 delayed

Publisher Bethesda has confirmed that upcoming alien bounty hunter shooter/open world adventure Prey 2 is still in development, although it will not be releasing this year as planned. A short, if slightly mysterious statement blamed the delay on unspecified problems in development.

“Development of Prey 2 has not been cancelled but the game will not be released in 2012 as planned,” the official statement reads. “The delay is due to the fact that game development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year, and the game does not currently meet our quality standards.”

“Prey 2 has shown great promise and we regret disappointing our fans. We have made a substantial investment in game development to deliver the experience fans want. We are determined only to release the AAA game that fans rightfully expect, and are unwilling to compromise our quality standards to meet a release schedule.”

A new estimated release date is yet to announced, and fans expressed their dismay at the lack of detail in the announcement.

“This does not sound like the good kind of delay. The good kind of delay is where they simply want more time to add more content and/or polish. This press release implies that they’re struggling with fundamental game elements. That’s the kind of delay that can lead to a cancellation,” wrote Reddit user Captain Midnight.

According to industry website Shacknews, there may be more going on behind the scenes than Bethesda wishes to make public. An unnamed source told a journalist that developers Human Head are unhappy with the terms of their contract with the publisher, and haven’t carried out any work on the game since last November. Supposedly, many of the development team were laid off while the project languished in development hell.

We’re not in a position to confirm any of this, but it’s clear that the game is in at least some trouble — bad news for those who, like me, were looking forward to what promised to be an interesting take on a pretty dull property.