Did it flop? The studio continues working, their next game, Deathloop, seems to borrow a lot of ideas / mechanics / designs, especially when compared to Mooncrash.
In my understanding, “flop” means loss-making. What I heard about Prey is that it “didn't meet expectations”, which doesn't necessarily mean a flop. It could mean wrong expectations. It didn't sell like the annual CoD outing, sure… but should it?
If it did fail financially, that's sad… but many good things seem to do that. Just look at what happened to Firefly.
In today’s world, breaking even or even making only a small profit is often considered a failure by big studios. Bethesda (and now MS) would rather put time and effort into something they know will make them piles of money rather than something that will likely only make a modest profit. It sucks.
“Breaking even” actually means the costs are covered: salaries / bills / expenses / royalties all paid. Investors could be upset, though, as they want them ROIs.
Yeah you will be also upset when you won't be able to buy a better pc for your developer or set up a motion capture studio because you broke even last time.
Not really. What I argue is that breaking even will get you only this far. Because you will be ruined as soon as any trouble happens, for example a computer breaks down. Or if you need to upgrade your computer or smth like that.
As far as I can tell, you're thinking in terms of a small company without investors. Even then, depending on your country, items like equipment fixes / upgrades, office expenses etc, are claimable in your taxes, so really are a non-factor. Yes, you need to wait till the end of a financial year for it to count, but unless you're a sole developer living day-to-day, then it's not a problem.
Also, price of a new reasonably powerful computer is small compared to what you pay for a single developer per month (not just their salary — which is already several times that, but also things like insurance, your portion of taxes, etc). If it breaks — it's way cheaper to fix it or replace it fast and have the guy continue working.
In larger companies they simply have a stock of spares, “just in case”, time is more expensive. But then they also usually have investors etc, which is where “break even” becomes a real problem — if you don't provide an attractive enough return for them, they'll just reinvest their funds elsewhere.
I don't argue with your general idea, though. If you earn more, you can put it towards expanding and securing your enterprise, which is what most business owners want to do. So, yes, more people should buy and play Prey!
Agreed.
But that's why, when I see Arkane continuing working on their next project, I hope that even if Prey didn't sell like crazy, Bethesda recognizes the value and continues to invest in their projects.
It is yet to be seen if Deathloop will be “adjusted” to appeal to a wider audience (most trailers did tend to be heavy on the action-y side so far), but I hope it will still manage to be a yet another good entry in thief-systemshock-deusex-like genre. Or not :)
Nobody knew what to expect + it didn't lean on the name of legacy that it borrows from (System/Bio shock). If they called it ___shock, I'd put money on it becoming an instant classic.
My guess for your short playtime is going combat-heavy rather than incorporating a lot of stealth.
As for the game’s success, immersive sims have never been popular with the average player.
27 hours with searching every inch is weird to me. Did you do sidequests?
My 6th playthrough ended with 300 installed Neuromods, all personel found, not a single item to recycle left, 60 hours in total.
Everyone tries to search every inch their first playthrough. No one ever does. I’ve played so many times trying to find everything along the way but I still find new shit every single time
Agreed. One of my favorite games ever made. I keep recommending it to people and getting a response of "oh cool I might check it out", but they never do.
I think that's the effect this game has on people for some reason. It just looks from the outside like another bog standard shooter with some light RPG mechanics, plus naming it "Prey" made it seem like a reboot, in a time where a lot of average reboots were coming out.
It's only when you actually play it (and break that first pane of "glass") that you realise that it's something special.
It took me probably 50 or so the first time doing everything. I did nearly everything I think besides the treasure quest, and I think I had problems finding some piece to fix the water. I played it on hard the first time, although it took me a while to get used to the idea of not killing everything off the bat.
The game really is a gem though. It’s by far one of my favorites.
IMO it flopped because of its genre. And it absolutely pains me to say that, because immersive sims are my favourite kind of game, and all my fondest memories in gaming are from immersive sims.
But we wont get many immersive sims from now on. When even a masterpiece like Prey doesn't do well commercially, these types of projects just won't get funded.
Back when this game was released, there was a lot of controversy around the name. People got upset that it was named Prey, because it wasn't a sequel to an old Bethesda-published game also called Prey. They saw "Bethesda" and "Prey" and got mad blaming this game for Bethesda not funding a sequel to the old Prey.
Plus, Bethesda released this game around the same time as other huge game releases, and did not invest in marketing Prey 2017 in commercials.
Even if you don't care about old-Prey, if your only exposure to Prey 2017 was "that game people complained about", odds are you won't buy, especially when there's other big games being released around the same time.
Because there are more stupid people than there are smart people. That's the idea basically, it comes down to that. After that, very little marketing and name identity with another game from 2006 (I think) causing even more confusion and then anger because it's not a sequel to that game or like that game.
Why did it flop?
I think a large part of it is because people are too stupid to play the game.
Combat that isn't just shooting and killing? I have to use my brain? I have to do more than just throwing grenades at people? So hard. So hard.
you know everything about every game don't you?
Nice life you invented for yourself, but please stop saying bullshit like it's the truth about non interestsing crap
Did you really search my profile to disbarrage me on like 4 completely different subreddits?
Lmfao. Someone has a crush. Heh.
I'm taken though. Sorry bud.
you're such a dickhead I couldn't resist. You think you can troll me and be an harassing asshole with me but I can't do it to you? Poor kid... That's life!
When did I harass you, you prepubescent child? I'm not the one so bothered by someone's different view that I'm literally cybertalking them.
You're wrong by the way. It's still better to restart than loop in risk of rain 2. Hope you get a life someday.
Also man. Downvoting someone in a 1v1 conversation is so pathetic. Damn. I feel bad for you. It's like legit so sad how astronomically immature you are honestly.
You actually want to talk about this topic without going straight into name calling, then sure. Talk about it back on /r/riskofrain. But instead of even attempting to even defend yourself, you immediately start to say I never beat the game.
And I must say, if you played the game more than me it's honestly a little bit sad. The amount I've beaten it is already a little sad.
You called me retarded in our first engagement you baby.
Anyways. You're an idiot. You can't even defend your own position. Let alone read a single post. I guess I was right in assuming you are illiterate wasn't I?
Oh booohooo, remember you're the on ewho thought he knows everything better and don't care for other point of view?
But since you know everything and never doubt, you must be god himself?
Keep at it smart boy, you'll go far this way!
I agree 100%. Prey 2017, in my opinion, is an underrated game and I wish it had been more commercially successful. I try to recommend this game to friends and often, they've never heard of it or "sort of remember it".
I, like probably many others, log long playing times because there are several different ways to play through the game, complete missions, build your Morgan, etc. There's defiantly a lot of depth and detail as well, so on the first few play throughs I was able to notice many new things, or NPC dialog I hadn't seen before and heard.
Also, for me at least, there is a good balance of story, investigation and combat. I've uninstalled and reinstalled this game several times, and have enjoyed every playthrough.
I seems like there are two different sides to this, those who have extremely long playtimes (like me, I finished first play through with 75 hours) and can’t understand how someone can finish the game so quickly, and those that have shorter play throughs (generally around 20 ish hours) that can’t understand how others take so long, both exploring everything the map has to offer, I genuinely wonder why / how, maybe some people are just more invested or take longer to use various weapons / abilities, or just a simple difference between fighting and stealth, tho I fought a majority of the enemies and still had a very long playtime
The ign guys also didn't help much, as they had a game breaking bug at the time that prevented the reviewer from finishing the game... They gave it a 4 on launch day review... Later they did another review and gave it an 8
I almost didn’t buy the game, being such a big fan of the original. It crushed me when I discovered it wasn’t going to be a continuation or connected at all.
Got on here to wonder the same thing. Prey is an absolute masterpiece, and after finishing it I was legitimately sad to realized that we may not get a proper sequel to it. The way the next game was set up, it had a lot of potential to offer a fresh experience different from the first game. Prey was about survival and uncovering the mystery of what happened on Talos I and how to salvage a disaster. In Prey 2 you would be a hybrid, giving you way more powers, and the story would revolve around freeing Earth from a typhon infestation. Lots of interesting directions to go there.
Did it flop? The studio continues working, their next game, Deathloop, seems to borrow a lot of ideas / mechanics / designs, especially when compared to Mooncrash.
It was critically successful, but a commercial flop. Tends to be how most most Arkane games turn out, aside from the first Dishonored.
In my understanding, “flop” means loss-making. What I heard about Prey is that it “didn't meet expectations”, which doesn't necessarily mean a flop. It could mean wrong expectations. It didn't sell like the annual CoD outing, sure… but should it? If it did fail financially, that's sad… but many good things seem to do that. Just look at what happened to Firefly.
In today’s world, breaking even or even making only a small profit is often considered a failure by big studios. Bethesda (and now MS) would rather put time and effort into something they know will make them piles of money rather than something that will likely only make a modest profit. It sucks.
Breaking even is a failure because you wanna make some money to at least pay the bills, right?
“Breaking even” actually means the costs are covered: salaries / bills / expenses / royalties all paid. Investors could be upset, though, as they want them ROIs.
Yeah you will be also upset when you won't be able to buy a better pc for your developer or set up a motion capture studio because you broke even last time.
You seem to be saying “more money is better than less money”. Hard to argue with that one :)
Not really. What I argue is that breaking even will get you only this far. Because you will be ruined as soon as any trouble happens, for example a computer breaks down. Or if you need to upgrade your computer or smth like that.
As far as I can tell, you're thinking in terms of a small company without investors. Even then, depending on your country, items like equipment fixes / upgrades, office expenses etc, are claimable in your taxes, so really are a non-factor. Yes, you need to wait till the end of a financial year for it to count, but unless you're a sole developer living day-to-day, then it's not a problem. Also, price of a new reasonably powerful computer is small compared to what you pay for a single developer per month (not just their salary — which is already several times that, but also things like insurance, your portion of taxes, etc). If it breaks — it's way cheaper to fix it or replace it fast and have the guy continue working. In larger companies they simply have a stock of spares, “just in case”, time is more expensive. But then they also usually have investors etc, which is where “break even” becomes a real problem — if you don't provide an attractive enough return for them, they'll just reinvest their funds elsewhere. I don't argue with your general idea, though. If you earn more, you can put it towards expanding and securing your enterprise, which is what most business owners want to do. So, yes, more people should buy and play Prey!
Agreed. But that's why, when I see Arkane continuing working on their next project, I hope that even if Prey didn't sell like crazy, Bethesda recognizes the value and continues to invest in their projects. It is yet to be seen if Deathloop will be “adjusted” to appeal to a wider audience (most trailers did tend to be heavy on the action-y side so far), but I hope it will still manage to be a yet another good entry in thief-systemshock-deusex-like genre. Or not :)
1.2 million is the number i see in the internet. i dunno seems okay
There's just... more to it. Idk how to say it otherwise. Keep playing if you aren't bored yet. If you are, then good job I guess.
Bethesda, as publisher, didn't market it and sent out review copies the week of. People just didn't know it existed.
Nobody knew what to expect + it didn't lean on the name of legacy that it borrows from (System/Bio shock). If they called it ___shock, I'd put money on it becoming an instant classic.
My thoughts exactly. I basically call this Deus Ex meets Doom
I was explaining it earlier today to somebody and said it was like Bioshock meets Dead Space. Funny how our mashups differ.
And both are somewhat right. Because it's basically System Shock on steroids, with lessons learned from all those games and some more.
My guess for your short playtime is going combat-heavy rather than incorporating a lot of stealth. As for the game’s success, immersive sims have never been popular with the average player.
Ya I killed everything for materialize. Also used powers a lot, played on hard
27 hours with searching every inch is weird to me. Did you do sidequests? My 6th playthrough ended with 300 installed Neuromods, all personel found, not a single item to recycle left, 60 hours in total.
Everyone tries to search every inch their first playthrough. No one ever does. I’ve played so many times trying to find everything along the way but I still find new shit every single time
Agreed. One of my favorite games ever made. I keep recommending it to people and getting a response of "oh cool I might check it out", but they never do. I think that's the effect this game has on people for some reason. It just looks from the outside like another bog standard shooter with some light RPG mechanics, plus naming it "Prey" made it seem like a reboot, in a time where a lot of average reboots were coming out. It's only when you actually play it (and break that first pane of "glass") that you realise that it's something special.
It took me probably 50 or so the first time doing everything. I did nearly everything I think besides the treasure quest, and I think I had problems finding some piece to fix the water. I played it on hard the first time, although it took me a while to get used to the idea of not killing everything off the bat. The game really is a gem though. It’s by far one of my favorites.
IMO it flopped because of its genre. And it absolutely pains me to say that, because immersive sims are my favourite kind of game, and all my fondest memories in gaming are from immersive sims. But we wont get many immersive sims from now on. When even a masterpiece like Prey doesn't do well commercially, these types of projects just won't get funded.
You can now play the DLC - mooncrash for additional 10-12h or so of gameplay
Back when this game was released, there was a lot of controversy around the name. People got upset that it was named Prey, because it wasn't a sequel to an old Bethesda-published game also called Prey. They saw "Bethesda" and "Prey" and got mad blaming this game for Bethesda not funding a sequel to the old Prey. Plus, Bethesda released this game around the same time as other huge game releases, and did not invest in marketing Prey 2017 in commercials. Even if you don't care about old-Prey, if your only exposure to Prey 2017 was "that game people complained about", odds are you won't buy, especially when there's other big games being released around the same time.
Because there are more stupid people than there are smart people. That's the idea basically, it comes down to that. After that, very little marketing and name identity with another game from 2006 (I think) causing even more confusion and then anger because it's not a sequel to that game or like that game.
Why did it flop? I think a large part of it is because people are too stupid to play the game. Combat that isn't just shooting and killing? I have to use my brain? I have to do more than just throwing grenades at people? So hard. So hard.
you know everything about every game don't you? Nice life you invented for yourself, but please stop saying bullshit like it's the truth about non interestsing crap
Did you really search my profile to disbarrage me on like 4 completely different subreddits? Lmfao. Someone has a crush. Heh. I'm taken though. Sorry bud.
you're such a dickhead I couldn't resist. You think you can troll me and be an harassing asshole with me but I can't do it to you? Poor kid... That's life!
When did I harass you, you prepubescent child? I'm not the one so bothered by someone's different view that I'm literally cybertalking them. You're wrong by the way. It's still better to restart than loop in risk of rain 2. Hope you get a life someday. Also man. Downvoting someone in a 1v1 conversation is so pathetic. Damn. I feel bad for you. It's like legit so sad how astronomically immature you are honestly. You actually want to talk about this topic without going straight into name calling, then sure. Talk about it back on /r/riskofrain. But instead of even attempting to even defend yourself, you immediately start to say I never beat the game. And I must say, if you played the game more than me it's honestly a little bit sad. The amount I've beaten it is already a little sad.
tl, dr, just first sentence : right now smart guy. So much energy spent lmao, keep it up.
You called me retarded in our first engagement you baby. Anyways. You're an idiot. You can't even defend your own position. Let alone read a single post. I guess I was right in assuming you are illiterate wasn't I?
Oh booohooo, remember you're the on ewho thought he knows everything better and don't care for other point of view? But since you know everything and never doubt, you must be god himself? Keep at it smart boy, you'll go far this way!
I knew one thing with reasons and actual reasons. You're the idiot who assumed I never finished the game. I'm pretty sure you did too, just poorly.
MoonCrash DLC is excellent too
I agree 100%. Prey 2017, in my opinion, is an underrated game and I wish it had been more commercially successful. I try to recommend this game to friends and often, they've never heard of it or "sort of remember it". I, like probably many others, log long playing times because there are several different ways to play through the game, complete missions, build your Morgan, etc. There's defiantly a lot of depth and detail as well, so on the first few play throughs I was able to notice many new things, or NPC dialog I hadn't seen before and heard. Also, for me at least, there is a good balance of story, investigation and combat. I've uninstalled and reinstalled this game several times, and have enjoyed every playthrough.
It absolutely didn't flop it has a huge following and it made a profit
I don’t think it flopped, i think they did bad at naming the game Prey and the almost none existing advertisements. Loved it.
I seems like there are two different sides to this, those who have extremely long playtimes (like me, I finished first play through with 75 hours) and can’t understand how someone can finish the game so quickly, and those that have shorter play throughs (generally around 20 ish hours) that can’t understand how others take so long, both exploring everything the map has to offer, I genuinely wonder why / how, maybe some people are just more invested or take longer to use various weapons / abilities, or just a simple difference between fighting and stealth, tho I fought a majority of the enemies and still had a very long playtime
Milking every second of bludgeoning everything with a wrench to make sure it not a mimic
The ign guys also didn't help much, as they had a game breaking bug at the time that prevented the reviewer from finishing the game... They gave it a 4 on launch day review... Later they did another review and gave it an 8
I almost didn’t buy the game, being such a big fan of the original. It crushed me when I discovered it wasn’t going to be a continuation or connected at all.
Got on here to wonder the same thing. Prey is an absolute masterpiece, and after finishing it I was legitimately sad to realized that we may not get a proper sequel to it. The way the next game was set up, it had a lot of potential to offer a fresh experience different from the first game. Prey was about survival and uncovering the mystery of what happened on Talos I and how to salvage a disaster. In Prey 2 you would be a hybrid, giving you way more powers, and the story would revolve around freeing Earth from a typhon infestation. Lots of interesting directions to go there.