LogInRaphaël Colantonio said Bethesda insisted on the name.
Prey is a 2017 sci-fi action game from Arkane Studios as well as a first-person shooter developed by Human Head Studios in 2006. The same name for different titles is usually not a good idea, and former Arkane Director Raphaël Colantonio thinks the same, and in a recent interview on The AIAS Game Maker's Notebook podcast he shared that he didn't want to call the studio's game Prey, but Bethesda insisted on it.
“I did not want to call this game Prey. And I had to say I wanted to anyway in front of journalists,” Colantonio said. “I hate to lie. … It felt bad I had to support a message I did not want.”
He was not the only one to dislike the name, the whole team did, even though Colantonio was grateful Bethesda provided the means to make the game and trusted his ability "with so many millions of dollars."
“Our game had nothing to do with Prey,” said Colantonio. “There is a bit of the artistic/creative side that is insulted when you tell this artist ‘You know, your game? It’s going to be called Prey.’ And you go like, ‘I don’t think it should. I think it’s a mistake.’”
It's not just any mistake, according to Colantonio, it's a sales mistake because the fans of the 2006 game were not happy, and those who didn't like the earlier title would not even look for Arkane's Prey. So the sales were "horrible" and nobody was happy in the end.
Colantonio also felt it was "a kick in the face" of the original makers of Prey. “I wanted to apologize to them many, many times,” said Colantonio. “I didn’t really have a chance because I don’t really know those people. It was never our intention to ‘steal their IP’ and make it ours. It’s gross and that’s not what I wanted to do.”
The same year the game launched Colantonio left the studio. He felt tired and didn't know if he really wanted to make video games anymore. However, in 2019 a new company was founded – WolfEye Studios. Now, he wants to "stay independent for real" and "make games that are cheaper" because he thinks that the more money you have, the more pressure and big decisions you get.
Watch the full interview with Raphaël Colantonio here and don't forget to join our Reddit page and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
Keep reading
You may find these articles interesting