Prey Title Was Forced Upon Arkane by Bethesda, Says Ex Studio Head

In the latest episode of the AIAS Game Maker's Notebook Podcast, former Arkane Austin studio head Raphael Colantonio talked about some of the reasons that led to his departure back in 2017.

For example, Colantonio really did not like being forced to call Prey with the same name as Human Head Studios' 2006 title.

Another thing, I'll admit it, I think that I was a little at odds with some of the management. The decision of calling Prey Prey, that was very very hurtful to me. I did not want to call this game Prey and I had to say I wanted to anyway in front of journalists, which is not my pleasure. I hate to lie and those are sales lies, it's not like personal life, but it still felt bad I had to support a message I did not want. Not only me but nobody on the team wanted to call this game Prey, our game had nothing to do with Prey. Yes, I'm grateful that a company will give me the means to make a game and trust my ability with so many millions of dollars, I'm grateful of that, but there is a bit of the artist, the creative side that is insulted when you tell this artist your game is going to be called Prey.

You go like, I don't think it should, I think it's a mistake, it's a sales mistake because we're gonna get the backfires from the people who want another Prey made. These ones are not gonna be happy. Then the ones who didn't like Prey, they're not even gonna look for the new game, so it's a really really weird thing. I was like, I gotta go at this point because I'm not in control of my own boat. Again, it's never sort of one thing, it's a number of things.

As some of you may remember, Bethesda even pushed indie developer No Matter Studios to change the title of their game Prey for the Gods as a way of protecting the brand. Interestingly, Human Head Studios joined Bethesda as Roundhouse Studios nearly three years ago, so there is a chance the original Prey might get a sequel at some point.

As for Raphael Colantonio, he founded WolfEye Studios, the indie team behind topdown immersive sim game Weird West.

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