Earlier this month a strange countdown site named AlienNoire was discovered that seemed to be connected to Bethesda’s Prey 2 — which was thought to have been shelved last year after it went missing from Bethesda’s website. The countdown site has since been updated and is now confirmed to be a reference to Prey 2, however, the publisher is claiming that they have nothing to do with it.
The site itself has been updated to show a Prey 2 logo, along with logos for both Bethesda Softworks and Human Head Studios (the developer behind the unreleased game). A note in the source code for the website — which originally read “Tommy needs your help” — has also been altered to read “Tommy needs your help with a stranded human who wants to go home.”
Finally, when the website first appeared the source code’s meta tags contained the following keywords; “Prey, Prey2, Prey 2, FPS, Bethesda Softworks, Human Head Studios, Alien Noire”. Shortly after the site was discovered those meta tags were removed from the code, however, it now appears that they have all been added back in.
As for Bethesda’s take on all of this, a company spokesperson told Joystiq, “I don’t know what that is or who is doing it. It’s not something we’re doing.”
Exactly who is behind AlienNoire is unclear, however, we do know that the site’s countdown timer is set to run out on “Mar 1 2013 18:00:00″. Presumably we will get some answers at that time, however, if Bethesda really is not behind the website, as they claim, then those answers could be meaningless in regards to Prey 2.
We will keep an eye on the strange website and let you know as soon as anything new pops up. Give us a shout out in the comments on your thoughts on the Prey 2 countdown website. Is Bethesda lying and this is the real deal, or is it just some kind of fan site?
[Update] The Alien Noire website has counting down to a Prey 2 fan site that is asking fans to sign a petition to finish the game.