Bethesda released a statement this morning, reaffirming that Prey 2 is not cancelled, but only delayed. However, now we're hearing that the developers haven't worked on the game since November last year.
No wonder Prey 2 has been delayed until 2013, as that's bordering dangerously close on six months without progress.
The delay stems from a contract dispute between developer Human Head Studios and the owner of publisher Bethesda, ZeniMax. Contract talks have been stop-start ever since.
An anonymous source told ShackNews that Human Head deliberately stopped work in November in search of a better deal, leading to layoffs of staff who hoped to be rehired when a new contract was negotiated. That never eventuated, after ZeniMaz stopped talking to Human Head in January.
There was a glimmer of hope in early March, but that was quickly stalled, resulting in rumours that the game had been cancelled altogether.
By Ben Salter - Tweet @Ben_Salter