Anyone who has ever invested themselves in a project can empathize with Karis. GDC presents a unique opportunity to really show off everything a developer or team accomplished over the year. As rewarding as giving a demo to fans or press can be, only the audience at GDC can truly grasp many of the complex technical accomplishments found in games and the effort that went into them.

Why would Zenimax force the issue? As often as publishers take flak from fans and developers alike for engaging in short-sighted, anti-consumer, anti-developer behavior, not every publisher action -- even those with which we disagree -- constitutes a crime against the gaming populace of the world. Zenimax evaluated the situation and decided that discussing Prey 2 at GDC was not in their interest. No one outside of the publisher and Human Head knows exactly why, but given the business realties of the industry, three possibilities present themselves.

Zenimax Fears Copycats

To make successful title publishers need to maximize every advantage at their disposal, and any new or novel feature in a game -- particularly in a genre as crowded as FPSs -- becomes a selling point. Given the long production time of most AAA titles revealing a feature too early gives the competition a chance to integrate it into their game. By holding off on revealing Prey 2's unique selling points Zenimax helps ward off competitors who might be able to integrate similar features into their title in time for the holidays. The complexity of modern games ensures that revealing the game too early won't result in a sea of Prey 2 clones, but competitors would face no difficulty integrating smaller, discreet gameplay systems into their games.

GDC Talks Would Violate the PR Plan

Even if a publisher doesn't fear plagiarism, E3 still offers a strong incentive to hold back on revealing Prey 2 information. Why reveal the truly amazing features of a game in a low-key GDC talk, when you can build entire events or presentations around them to wow fans and the press a few months later. Presenters at GDC generally avoid revealing such information, but maybe the important features are so integral to the game that any discussion risks revealing them.

Prey 2 is in Trouble

Prey 2 made a big impression on fans with a presentation that Zenimax and Human Head demoed at E3, the Eurogamer Expo, and to the press in private meetings. Judging from discussion of the game online, a small but influential group is eagerly anticipating the game and any news of it, but neither the publisher nor the developer have revealed any new information since August.

Games sometimes go quiet for months or years with little or no explanation. Sometimes it indicates the dev team is facing serious difficulties, and sometimes it's just part of the publicity plan. Suppose that beyond last year's demo -- which must have required months of effort to build by itself -- Human Head had little else to show and has since been unable to make significant progress on the project. We have no reason to believe that this is the case, but the press sees games follow this path all the time. If Prey 2's very hypothetical development difficulties might reveal themselves, even unintentionally, Zenimax wouldn't want to risk the generally positive image that most fans now have of the game.

None of the options listed above are mutually exclusive. The real reason for Zenimax's decision likely took into account issues related to all three, as well as a few factors we very likely know nothing about.