Prey demo announced, but not for the PC

Bethesda have announced that a one hour demo of Prey will be available on 27 April, ahead of its 5 May launch; but not on PC. The demo will be available only on console platforms.

It’s not unusual for the PC build of a game to be finalised at a later date, so this isn’t necessarily a surprise. However, it’s a massive, missed opportunity for Arkane and Bethesda to regain some trust from the PC audience after Dishonored 2’s depressing performance problems (several still unfixed even now).

Prey is using CryEngine (as opposed to Dishonored 2’s strange id Tech 4 ‘Void Engine’ hybrid), so there is every chance that it’ll run better on PC. An opportunity for people to try it out early, ahead of release, would have been an ideal showcase. Instead, the inability to see how the game runs on PC will probably just fuel further suspicion of another port with dodgy problems.

There’s a little bit of gameplay footage in the accompanying demo announcement trailer, but it’s mostly just touting the date and trying to sell you on pre-orders. Here it is, anyway.