A NeoGAF user stumbled upon a new countdown site today called AlienNoire.com that appears to contain several references to Bethesda’s Prey 2, a game that many believed had been shelved last year.
The actual Alien Noire website consists of nothing more than a headline title and a countdown clock, all of which is written in an unreadable font. Assuming that the top line of the clock is in seconds and counts down from 10, it appears that the timer will end 27 days from today.
While the countdown clock itself reveals nothing about its purpose, the site’s source code is much more informative and provides several links to Prey 2. At least, it did before it was changed shortly after the website was discovered.
Originally the source code’s meta tags contained the following keywords; “Prey, Prey2, Prey 2, FPS, Bethesda Softworks, Human Head Studios, Alien Noire”. Additionally, the code listed the countdown as ending on “Mar 1 2013 18:00:00”, and it contained the line “Tommy needs your help” at the bottom. The name Tommy is most likely a reference to the protagonist in the original Prey, Domasi “Tommy” Tawodi.
After the source code was altered the only remaining reference to Prey 2 is the “Tommy” line at the bottom of the code.
WhoIs reveals that Alien Noire is registered by “The Collective” (a possible reference to Prey 2 character Dra’Gar) with the following address: 17677 S. Muskogee Ave, Tahlequah, OK 74464. The specific address (which points to an intersection next to the Cherokee Nation Marshall Services and a Carl’s Jr.) does not seem to be connected to Bethesda, however, it should be noted that Tommy lived on a Cherokee reservation in Tahlequah Oklahoma.
The phone number listed on the registration has a “301” Maryland area code, which is the same area code of Bethesda Softworks’ Rockville Maryland office. The actual phone numbers do not match, and when called they appear to be connected to different telephone systems.
The last official word that we heard about Prey 2 was back in August 2012 when Bethesda released a statement to say that the game was not canceled even though the publisher had removed it from their website.
Since we can not tie the Alien Noire website directly to Bethesda, this should be considered a rumor for now. As soon as Bethesda announces anything official about the status of Prey 2 we will let you know.