Raphael Colantonio, former Arkane director, recently expressed his regret over using the Prey name for the 2017 imsim.
Prey (2017) is a fantastic game, and one of my favourites from that year. But its name has always struck me as odd. It bears no resemblance to the 2006 film Prey or its never-released sequel. In a new interview, the game’s director explains how Bethesda forced him and his team to use that name and how “gross” he felt using it. He believes the name was a poor marketing decision that may have doomed the game to failure.
Colantonio founded Arkane Studios and was the writer and director of Prey, 2017’s best immersive sim. The first-person shooter, set on a derelict space station teeming with shapeshifting aliens, combined puzzles, exploration, and narrative into a beautiful mix that only sort of goes completely off the rails in the final few hours. While it was a fantastic game (with even better DLC), it had nothing in common with the 2006 Prey, which was developed by Human Head Studios and featured Native Americans.
Colantonio left Arkane shortly after Prey 2017 was released, and he’s stated that he didn’t want to use the Prey title for Arkane’s game ever since. And now, while appearing on the AIAS Game Maker’s Notebook podcast, he’s revealed even more details about the situation, including his displeasure with the studio’s name, which he claims was imposed on them, claiming he was “at odds” with Bethesda.
More: Bethesda Misled Gamers About Prey, According to Leaked Emails
“I wasn’t going to call this game Prey. And I had to say I wanted to anyway in front of journalists,” he explained in the podcast to AIAS. “I despise lying… It felt bad to support a message I didn’t agree with.”
Colantonio went on to say that it wasn’t just him who felt this way, but that many others at Arkane did as well. While he was “grateful” that a company gave him the resources and time to create a game and “trusted” him to create something like Prey, he was still irritated by the name.
“Our game had nothing to do with Prey,” Colantonio explained. “When you tell [an] artist, ‘You know your game?’ there is a bit of the artistic/creative side that is insulted.” ‘The title will be Prey.’ ‘I don’t think it should,’ you say. ‘I believe it was a mistake.'”
Colantonio went on to say that naming it Prey was a “sales mistake” because it “backfired” because Prey fans weren’t happy and people who didn’t like the original, unrelated Prey didn’t even “look for [the] game.”
Colantonio felt bad for the original Prey and the team behind that game because they used that name and IP, feeling like it was a “kick in the face” to the developers behind 2006’s Prey. “I wanted to apologise to them many times,” Colantonio said. “I didn’t stand a chance because I didn’t know those people.” It was never our intention to “steal” their intellectual property and claim it as our own. It’s disgusting, and it’s not what I wanted to do.”
This situation with Prey, and how Bethesda forced the name on the team, was a major reason for the former Arkane director’s departure from the studio in 2017. He has since founded WolfEye Studios, which has recently released Weird West.
This isn’t the first time Colantonio has discussed his disagreements with Bethesda over Prey. He told MinnMax last week that he was “bummed” that Bethesda forced the team to use the name. Previously, he claimed that the decision was out of his and the studio’s hands.
His new studio’s goal is to do things differently than in the more corporate publishing system he was a part of for so long, and to “stay independent for real” while making smaller games without the pressure of multi-million dollar corporations breathing down their necks.
