Rumour: Prey 2 Development Halted in November

While Bethesda has just stated that Prey 2 has been delayed due to development having "not progressed satisfactorily this last year", Shacknews further reports that development halted in November due to contract negotiations.

Citing an anonymous source, the site claims that developer Human Head was unhappy with the terms of its contract with Bethesda parent company ZeniMax and so stopped work on the game in the hopes of negotiating a better deal. Negotiations apparently progressed favourably until January, when ZeniMax's responses dried up. There was a brief ray of hope around March 1st, but then the dealings soured again. The source was unable to provide first-hand details beyond March 2nd.

The process has apparently prompted redundancies at Human Head, with the hope apparently being that staff could be rehired once development resumes.

ZeniMax didn't provide any comment beyond the statement we reported yesterday. The statement included the assertion that "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."

Well, Shacknews's source doesn't contradict that. Still, you might want to take a wee pinch of salt with this latest report, just to be safe.