Many fans of the video game Prey were pretty upset to find out that the game’s sequel, Prey 2 (first announced back in March of 2011), might be getting killed off.

Bethesda Softworks, the company publishing the game that was being developed by Human Head Studios for a 2012 release, has now offered up an update on the sequel, mainly reaching out to all of the angry/saddened fans and offering them reassurance that Prey 2 is still happening…they’re just not sure when it will be coming out anymore.

You can check out Bethesda’s statement below.

Development of Prey 2 has not been cancelled but the game will not be released in 2012 as planned.

The delay is due to the fact that game development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year, and the game does not currently meet our quality standards. Prey 2 has shown great promise and we regret disappointing our fans. We have made a substantial investment in game development to deliver the experience fans want. We are determined only to release the AAA game that fans rightfully expect, and are unwilling to compromise our quality standards to meet a release schedule.

The game follows U.S. Marshal Killian Samuels, a passenger on a plane that crashes into the Sphere (something familiar to those who played the first game). Samuels survives the crash and fights off some aliens before being knocked out. The game then jumps ahead many years to where Samuels is now a bounty hunter on the alien planet without any memory of the years that passed after the plane crash and his abduction, leading him to try and figure out what happened.

It’s unclear how much—if any—of the game will be changed to improve the many issues that have forced such a lengthy delay.

[Source: Bethesda]