Sony PlayStation 3 owners looking forward to the day they might see Domasi Tawodi blast apart alien scum in the upcoming Prey 2 by both Radar Group and Human Head Studios, here's some bad news: it's been confirmed that the game will only be coming out for the Xbox 360 and PC. Check out all the details about this unfortunate matter after the jump.

There's some new info out and about on the internet, and it has everything to do with Prey 2. While much hasn't been revealed about this game, there's a pretty intriguing description and a nice piece of art for this game, which you can find in the full article.

This one is a quick follow up to our report the other day concerning the fire that engulfed the building where Human Head Studios (the development studio responsible for PC and Xbox 360 video game Prey) is housed.

According to an entry on the developer's official online site, they are very grateful that no one was injured in the incident. The post added that while a couple of furniture and equipments were destroyed due to smoke and water, no significant data loss was incurred. Here's a portion of the note:

We're excited to let our concerned friends know that this speed bump won't keep us from continuing our development of great new award-winning product. We will be relocating to a new office space for the short term, and we expect to be back in full development very soon.

So what did we learn from this bit? Well, two things: first, Human head Studios is doing fine, thank God. And then we also learned that they are currently working on a new project. Intriguing, we should say...

 

Human Head Studios, maker of the game Prey, was recently the victim of a fire that destroyed a portion of the building they the studios' employees were staying in.

According to the report from Channel3000.com, firefighters received a call around 2:30 A.M. of April 20 regarding flames coming out of the building where Human Head Studios is located. No cause has yet been determined for the fire, though it is presumed that the fire began in the rear storage area of the building.

The building, which housed numerous other businesses, was apparently damaged severely in the flames. Luckily, no injuries were reported from the blaze, though the businesses involved were definitely hurt by the fire.

We do hope that Human Head gets back on its feet in no time, because it'd be a shame to lose such a great developer to a fire like that. Till they give out official word though, we'll just have to sit and wait.

As unexpected as it sounds, Mr. Marc Ecko (*ecko unltd., the clothing brand) just formed a new videogame production house called Marc Ecko Entertainment (MEE).

As we've reported before, MEE is headed by Mark Lynch. Other key employees include Shawn Rosen as Executive Producer and Marc Fernandez as Creative VP. Just one glance at that lineup will tell you that MEE is already a force to reckon with.

Anyway, the new studio announced today that it is teaming up with Human Head Studios to develop a new IP for next-gen consoles. We guess we don't have to remind you that Human Head was responsible for last year's Prey.

The fashion designer, himself, commented on this new development. He likened MEE's relationship with the studio to Michael Jordan:

As a huge fan of Prey, I am psyched to have the opportunity to watch Human Head enhance our vision and bring it to life. It's sort of like drawing up the play for the "to win" basket and having Jordan there to execute it to perfection.

No, this article has nothing to do with decapitated heads.

But Wisconsin-based game developer Human Head Studios did lose its head, and by that we mean their CEO Timothy Gerritsen. During his tenure as CEO, Human Head successfully developed Rune, a third person viking game; Blair Witch II: Legend of Coffin Rock, an action adventure game based on the movie; Dead Man's Hand, a wild west FPS; and Prey, where they collaborated with 3D Realms.

Gerritsen left the company around November last year and sold his part of the company because the other owners decided to take the company in a different direction. Human Head curiously hasn't released any comment regarding this, considering Gerritsen described his departure "amicable". Gerritsen had been with the company for eight years, joining Human Head shortly after it was conceived.

Co-founder and Human Head president, Paul MacArthur is currently interim CEO. Human Head hasn't announced any future projects since Prey.

Human Head Studios is not through with Prey's Tommy, and if they had their way, they wouldn't be through with Jenny either, as the Head's head, Tim Gerritsen, and co-founder Chris Rhinehart, talks to CVG about Prey retrospectively - while also discussing plans for the future. Yes, they're coming up with new ideas for Prey 2. They just can't spoil anything right now.

Well, doesn't that spoil the anticipation for this article? Anyways, Chris mentions that "selfishly," he wishes that Jenny could be present in some way in the sequel. "She's like the ultimate annoying girlfriend; she can come back spiritually like Obi-Wan" (The "ultimate annoying girlfriend" + "Obi-Wan" = we can't bear to think about it).

Much of the interview looks back at  Prey's original development history, particularly on things that helped define the game (such as the oozing, living walls of your battlefield). The Death Walk, in particular, wasn't even on the drawing board. It was Human Heads' idea to keep the player immersed in the game.

Of course, there were some elements that had to be toned down. The possession of the kids by those evil, evil ghosts, in particular, underwent a bit of an overhaul. Besides ultimately achieving the horrifying effect the devs were looking for, a side effect of the change was "it helped the game to get released in Germany, too."

Well, aside from that political consideration... Looking back eleven years, the Human Heads team could be proud of what they've achieved, especially considering what those eleven years had been like. And with Chris and Tim saying that the devs are batting around ideas for the sequel, like we said: looks like Human Head ain't through with Tommy yet.

The recently-released Prey has been around for longer than most people might expect - almost longer than Duke Nukem Forever. The portal technology had been even more emphasized back in 1997 when the game was shown publicly for the first time. Obviously, besides this mentioned core concept, it had very little to do with the Prey of 2006, but was critically lauded for it's cutting-edge technology and innovative features.

However, Prey's development grinded to a halt in 1999 when "insurmountable technical problems" appeared, possibly because of the ambitious portal technology the developers were trying to implement. The year 2002 saw the revival of the game by shifting development responsibilites to Human Head Studios. They built a new game from the ground up, this time using Doom 3 technology, but keeping the concepts that fueled the first iteration. This would eventually become the Prey we all know.

And to put things into perspective, here's a video showing the game as of 1998. I know it's hard, but if you try to think about how it looked like in comparison to other games back then, it's pretty darn cool.

For those of you out there that can't get enough of the Prey demo, you better go ahead and turn off your 360 for a little while as 2K Games, a publishing label of Take Two Interactive Software, and 3D Realms today announced that the first-person shooter Prey is now available in stores across North America and will be available at stores in Europe on July 14. Developed by Human Head Studios and created and produced by 3D Realms, Prey is available for Xbox 360 video game entertainment system from Microsoft and PC in both regular and Limited Collector's editions.

"Prey revitalizes the first-person shooter genre with a new dimension of features including portal tactics and 360 degrees of gravity manipulating combat in an aggressive living environment," said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K Games. "Prey is this summer's definitive next generation game." Prey tells the story of Tommy, a Cherokee garage mechanic stuck on a reservation and going nowhere. His life changes when an otherworldly crisis forces him to awaken spiritual powers from his long-forgotten birthright. Abducted along with his people to a menacing mother ship orbiting Earth, he sets out to save himself and his girlfriend and ultimately his planet.

A Limited Collector's Edition is also available, which includes pewter figurines of Tommy and Hunter, the Art of Prey illustrated booklet, a free soundtrack download and more. So if you're in need of a new game for your Xbox 360 or just want to play a FPS with an actual story go ahead and check it out.

Yesterday, the official boxart for the FPS title Prey has been revealed. Now I'm pretty sure this had one effect on all Prey enthusiasts out there: a heightened anticipation for the Prey demo that is supposed to have been available in the Marketplace last night. Unfortunately, the Prey demo is not yet available.

Word has it that the Xbox 360 demo is still in testing at Microsoft. For all of you who've been counting the sweet days to that moment when they can finally test the game, there's still no official word as to when the demo will really come out. 3D Realms President George Broussard says:

"I'm still waiting for specifics, but I'm being told that it's still in testing at Microsoft. From what I understand this isn't Microsoft's fault, and is more likely just an issue of timing. I'm hesitant to give any estimates for a release, but I've been told it should be reasonably soon after the PC release, but could be as long as a few days. We will post an update as soon as we have more solid information."

However, if you're really excited to try out the gravity-defying feature that will allow you to let your character - Tommy, the garage mechanic - walk on ceilings, then you can try out the demo of the PC version, which is already out for grabs. If you meet the following minimum requirements, then go ahead and click the download link below to at least ease your longing for this Human Head Studios/3D Realms/2K Games title:

• Intel Pentium 4 2.0Ghz or AMD Athlon XP 2000+ processor
• 512MB System RAM
• 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 64MB video card with latest manufacturer drivers
• 8X CD-ROM (standard edition), DVD-ROM (Limited Collector's Edition)
• 2.2GB of uncompressed free hard drive space
• 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card
• Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP with latest service pack installed
• Mouse and keyboard
• DirectX 9.0c (included)

Download: [Prey PC Demo]