ZeniMax files to protect Prey

By Robert Purchese Published 9 September, 2009

id Software's new owner has IP.

ZeniMax, id Software's new parent, has taken control of the Prey licence according to various trademark sightings.

The US Patent & Trademark Office shows the IP changing hands from 3D Realms to Radar back in June, before transferring to ZeniMax a few weeks later, according to Gamasutra.

In a trademark filed last week (spotted by Superannuation), ZeniMax has secured the IP when relating to "motion picture films in the field of science fiction", PC and console games, and downloadable software - both for PC and "wireless devices".

Human Head eventually finished work on a Prey game for PC and Xbox 360 three years ago after a long an tumultuous development, which began in one way or another back in 1995. (Update: As some of you have noted, this story originally claimed the studio then closed, citing an article about a fire as proof. Bonkers. This was an error and Human Head lives on.)

Licence-owner Radar Group - a brand management company lead by 3D Realms' Scott Miller - announced Prey 2 in March last year. What will become of that game remains to be seen.

Head over to our original Prey review to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (8) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 2 years ago

    I really enjoyed Prey, one of the few games I've played through a few times. I was not a fan of the cliffhanger ending though, which is why I'm happy about any new that could even vaguely suggest I can return to guide Tommy through another adventure :)

  • Optimaximal #2 2 years ago

    Wow, what bad journalism...

    Human Head hasn't closed and quite how much of a logic leap was made from a news article relating to a 'contained fire at their office' is frankly astounding. - [link url=http://humanhead.com/
    ]http://humanhead.com/
    [/link]

    Also, Prey was pretty damn good given its development history...
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/09 @ 09:22

  • Eraser #3 2 years ago

    Yup I enjoyed Prey very much.

  • miiiguel #4 2 years ago

    Actually a good game - it really does well what it wants to do. It suffered from some sort of xenophoby against generically-themed-FPS's, aka "we're smart we don't like no stuff like that".
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/09 @ 09:43

  • penhalion #5 2 years ago

    Did prey come before portal? I remember that it had a kick ass portal transport system on the alien ship.

  • Meho #6 2 years ago

    It did.

    Edit: Clarification: it did have a portal system before Portal (but not before Narbacular Drop I bet). But I disagree about it being kickass as Valve's design of stages and puzzles was what it all was about, not the actual porting technology.
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/09 @ 11:06

  • davisorle #7 2 years ago

    Someone just make Prey 2 happen already PLS! :)First was awesome, reffreshing, defferent, loved the portals and shooting from the other side etc. Too many new things to play around with. And just talking about that game makes me consider play it once again :S

  • Nephirion #8 2 years ago

    /intrigue