Key events
15th December 2010
13th December 2010
6th December 2010
18th June 2009
10th June 2009
4th February 2009
31st July 2007
Surprise! Prototype game bundle released for Xbox One today
UPDATE: Now there's a trailer - and it still looks like a Xbox 360 game.
UPDATE 4.25pm: Activision has now formally announced the Prototype bundle with a press release and a European date for the PS4 edition - which curiously won't be available until next Wednesday, 22nd July.
Activision closes down Prototype studio
Radical's franchise "did not find a broad commercial audience".
Activision has shut down Radical Entertainment - the Vancouver-based studio behind the Prototype series.
Beg for Mercer.
Among the thousands of innocent civilians occupying Prototype's Manhattan, there are a few that have been singled out, the ominous big brother of that terrifying Lottery hand pointing a conspicuous finger at their heads.
Sackboy, Lara DLC head PS Store update
Plus, download Prototype for £31.99.
Sackboy's Prehistoric Moves, new Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light DLC and PSP platformer Prinny 2 are among the highlights of the latest PlayStation Store update.
The new content, listed on the PlayStation Blog and reproduced in full below, also includes the last two Prince of Persia HD re-releases, new DLC for Assassins's Creed: Brotherhood, DJ Hero 2 and Joe Danger, as well as a bunch of pre-Christmas price cuts.
Slightly less festive, however, is the asking price for the original Prototype, which has just been added for £31.99. Word from the wise: Amazon is selling the Platinum Edition for £11.99.
2m sales of original justify Prototype 2
Plus, first game hits XBL, PSN.
Given the mixed reviews for the original Prototype, a sequel perhaps wasn't a foregone conclusion. However, once it sold two million copies, the recently announced follow-up became inevitable, developer Radical Entertainment has revealed.
"When Prototype surpassed 2MM units we knew gamers would want a sequel to find out what happens next with Alex Mercer," said Radical Entertainment boss Ken Rosman.
"The team here at Radical is sincerely grateful to the fans and we are laser focused on delivering an even bigger and better experience with Prototype 2!"
Murder Your Maker video emerges.
Prototype 2 looks like a dead cert for a Spike Video Game Awards reveal after flashes of footage of the original game popped up on viral website Murderyourmaker.com.
It is the latest in a series of teasers for the openworld superhero sequel that began with the launch of the Murderyourmaker website last month.
The plot thickened when the third of three zombie-related VGA images found its way onto the internet.
Third VGA zombie teaser spotted
Case for Prototype 2 gathers strength.
The third in a series of teaser images for a zombie-related videogame set to be unveiled at the Spike Video Game Awards has hit the internet.
Is Murder Your Maker Prototype 2?
Activision teases a new game.
What's this Murder Your Maker game Activision has up its sleeve?
UK charts: Prototype works for Acti
Ghostbusters calls in at four.
Prototype has unseated The Sims 3 at the top of the UK all-formats chart after its second week on sale.
Xbox 360 vs. PS3 Face-Off: Round 20
Ghostbusters, Prototype, Bionic Commando, FUEL, Wolverine, Red Faction.
We've reached a new Face-Off milestone as the series reaches its 20th compilation-based instalment and with it, Eurogamer is happy to reveal that its coverage has evolved once more. Our comparison features have traditionally been rich with video and screenshot-based assets that are the best they can be possibly be, but with the arrival of this landmark, the brand new Eurogamer HD video player comes into play, giving you the choice of watching either the cropped 1:1 pixel-mapped embedded video streams, or else a higher-quality 720p presentation.
Just click the HD button where appropriate to get the full picture. It's worth pointing out that the default setting for the HD player is 960x540, with the 720p encoding scaled down to fit the window. To bypass this resizing, hit the full-screen button at the bottom of the screen. CPU-rending h264 encoding techniques, combined with running the full 60Hz output of each console at 50 per cent speed, allows us to retain enough quality to make the comparison videos actually work, and now you get to see the full picture. Every frame, every pixel. Nice.
Onto the games then - a six-strong line-up of the most recent high-profile releases. All killer, no filler!
UK charts: suburb week for Sims 3
Prototype unlucky, Staff of Kings in trouble.
The Sims 3 holds on to the UK All-Formats top spot for a second week, fending off shape-shifting newcomer Prototype at two.
Prototype PS3 install bug workaround
Fiddle with your hard disk contents.
Activision has advised US PlayStation 3 owners who buy Prototype that they may need to free up some space on their hard disk to overcome an installation bug.
Consume and become?
As Uncle Ben once said, with great power comes great responsibility. However, according to videogames, with great power comes 10 minutes of action and then some sort of flashback or plot device that takes the great power away again, followed by 10 hours of getting it back. Prototype is that sort of game.
But hey, those 10 minutes are mental. Hopping into the trainers, jeans and hoodie/leathers ensemble of a grumpy-looking Alex Mercer, you set about ripping through Manhattan, running up sheer skyscrapers to launch into tank-destroying elbow slams, throwing yellow cabs into helicopters, and ultimately taking out an entire city block by crouching into a sort of organic explosion, which pierces just about everything in the vicinity with black, otherworldly tendrils of death.
And hey again, even without your powers, you're still powerful, and by the time you reach the same stage of Mercer's evolution a couple of game-weeks later, you will not only feel like you've earned it, but you will have a greater understanding of every little thing, forged through exciting, brutal experiences that always emphasise your ridiculous, superheroic abilities.
Painting the town red.
Playing through the opening minutes of Prototype is a bit of a blur, and not just because it's one of roughly 600,000 titles Activision is presenting in a rammed pre-E3 press event in the middle of London. Prototype would probably be a bit of a blur if you were dipping into it after a fifteen-hour snooze in a four-poster bed, with your own personal demo pod set up in the ballroom of Sandringham Palace, the Dalai Lama on hand to show you the controls, and members of Hansard fluttering nearby to note down even the most fleeting of your impressions. Prototype seems like a blur because that's how the game plays: from the very start, it's hectic, bloody, rollicking, and a little unhinged. Take away the present-day setting, and it's the kind of thing a syphilitic pirate might hallucinate, laid up in bed with a high fever.
Due out on 12th June.
Due out on 12th June.
Activision sets firm Prototype date
Mutant open-world action for early June.
Activision has told Eurogamer that body-morphing action game Prototype will launch in Europe on 12th June. Do not be fooled by the 5th June shipping date - that's just when it's sent out to retailers.
Manhattan murder mystery.
What's your idea of a fun day out in New York? Strolling down Fifth Avenue? Taking a carriage ride through Central Park? Visiting all the places you've seen in the movies? Or running up the side of a skyscraper, elbow-dropping a giant mutant from 50 storeys up, consuming the DNA of a helicopter pilot and punching a tank?
Prototype shapes up for June launch
Mercer, Mercer, Mercer me.
Activision has said body-morphing openworld game Prototype will be released this June.
The date was stamped on New York Comic-Con invitations, according to Joystiq, where attendees will be allowed hands-on time with the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 title. We're chasing Activision for clarification.
Prototype - developed by Radical Entertainment - was unveiled to the masses by Sierra back in 2007, and deemed valuable enough to remain on the Activision Blizzard roster post-merger.
Openworld game still on Activision radar.
Openworld game still on Activision radar.
Radical Entertainment staff levels slashed
Nearly half of employees to go.
New giants on the gaming block Activision Blizzard have confirmed that they'll be 'realigning staffing' at Vancouver-based developer Radical Entertainment.
Ghostbusters drops off release schedule
No sign of 50 Cent or Brutal Legend either.
Activision Blizzard has issued a new release schedule with several key titles conspicuously absent.
More time needed to deliver.
Sierra has confirmed its third-person open-world game Prototype has been delayed until next year.
Alex through the looking glass.
It must take some nuts, showing off your brand new openworld game the week before the biggest openworld game in history launches. You know, the one that's set in a fictional version of New York, and features hundreds of optional side quests alongside a linear narrative, and revolves around a mysterious anti-hero who follows his own moral code.
Prototype to get co-op in the future?
Could feature if there's a sequel.
Radical Entertainment's Chris Ansell has said online co-op could feature in future Prototype games - even though they abandoned plans to put it in the first one.
Wildstorm in charge of drawing.
New best friends Sierra Entertainment and DC Comics have decided to make upcoming game Prototype into a comic book series.
Ramping up console creativity.
Sierra Entertainment has told GamesIndustry.biz it isn't afraid to take more risks than other publishers and that it's ramping up development of new IP like Prototype and F.E.A.R.
Promising precursor.
We’re bored of parkour. Yes, it's very impressive, all that dedication and skill and hours spent doing forward rolls in car parks. But now it's everywhere, from James Bond films to poor quality videogames, and what was once edgy and exciting is now dull. It's like when Madonna started doing krump in her videos, or Mr T started selling Snickers, or Riverdance appeared on Eurovision.
Morph you.
Morph you.
Radical's new game.
Sierra Entertainment has confirmed to Eurogamer that it will be publishing Radical Entertainment's wonderfully violent new game called Prototype.
It puts you in the shoes of science experiment Alex Mercer, who ended up with super human abilities and now spends his time wandering around killing people. Justifiably angry, you might say.
With every person he kills, he absorbs their abilities, memories and appearance. The more he absorbs, the more powerful, knowledgeable and skilful he becomes - making him able to morph his body into a weapon or highly effective shield.
