Raphaël Colantonio founded Arkane Studios back in 1999 and remained the company’s president and creative director until 2017, not long after their underappreciated first-person immersive sim, Prey, launched. While making a guest appearance on an episode of Game Maker’s Notebook podcast, run by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Colantonio went into detail about how he did not want to call the game Prey but was forced to by Bethesda, the studio’s then, and current, parent company.

It’s been previously revealed that Prey was being developed as its own original IP but was then slightly adjusted in order to be marketed as a re-imagining of the 2006 title of the same name. The original was developed by Human Head Studios and published by 2K, however, the rights for the franchise were acquired by Bethesda Softworks in 2009. A sequel was in the works but was later cancelled, and somewhere along the way, Bethesda made the decision to retrofit Arkane’s game as a Prey game.



Colantonio was candid in this recent podcast expressing his frustration, stating that the game they were making was in no way related to 2006’s Prey. He explained how he still feels a tad of resentment about this decision for various reasons. Firstly, he had to tell journalists he did want to call the game Prey. He said he hated to lie and proclaimed how badly it felt to support a message he did not believe in. It wasn’t just Arkane’s president though. According to him, “nobody in the team wanted to call the game Prey,” either.

He did express gratitude for having the financial security of being able to create a game such as 2017’s Prey, as it is not a traditional action title, and even significantly deviates from Arkane’s critically acclaimed Dishonored series. Regardless, his artistic side felt insulted by the suggestion as he thought the naming decision was a mistake. He explained how he felt it hurt their marketing in the end, as fans of the 2006 game would not be satisfied with the “reboot”, while those who didn’t like the original would immediately dismiss this one. The sales ended being “horrible,” according to him.

Though this naming issue wasn’t the specific reason for Colantonio’s departure from Arkane, he did state he felt he longer had the artistic freedom he was promised when the studio was acquired by Bethesda back in 2010. Colantonio started a new studio back in 2019 called Wolf Eye Studios, where he hopes to do things differently and escape the trappings of corporate publishing by remaining independent.



Posted: Sep 05, 2022 8:37 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/bethesda-forced-arkane-to-call-its-immersive-sim-prey/