Prey 2 delayed, source claims devs suspended work

Dispelling rumors that the game had been cancelled outright, Bethesda Softworks has announced the game has been delayed beyond 2012 because it does not meet its "quality standards."

"Development of Prey 2 has not been cancelled but the game will not be released in 2012 as planned," Bethesda said in a statement.

"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."

But there may be more to the delay than poor framerates and graphical glitches.

The anticipated sequel to the portal-jumping, gravity-bending FPS is being developed by Human Head Studios, and a source has told Shack News that the developers were not happy with their contract.

According to the report, Human Head may have suspended work on the game in November in a bid to negotiate better terms.

It is claimed many developers were laid off in the hopes of being rehired when the contract was renegotiated, but many began to lose hope in January, when ZeniMax simply stopped responding.

Things were begining to look promising again by the first of March, but the next day, things took a turn for the worse, and the source was unable to give any details after March 2.

Neither Human Head, Bethesda, or ZeniMax have issued a statement other than that given this morning by Bethesda.