According to leaked emails obtained by Kotaku , Arkane Studios is working on Prey 2 , despite publisher Bethesda's emphatic denial of the rumours earlier this month.

Written by Arkane Creative Director Raphael Colantonio, the emails reveal that the Austin branch of Arkane is beginning pre-production on the project, and positioning it as a "spiritual successor" to System Shock 2."Austin has officially been green lit for its own project!" reads an email from Colantonio to his staff back in May. "Doing a new IP was not a possibility because it's adding risk to the challenge of growth, so after going back and forth with Todd, Harvey, Ricardo, we decided that Prey 2 presented an interesting opportunity if we could reboot it. Zenimax accepted our pitch which was "the spiritual successor to System Shock 3." (If the email is the real deal, one presumes he meant 2. Unless someone's not telling us something.)The key word here is "reboot." According to Kotaku, Arkane is starting the project entirely afresh, rather than working off anything created by Prey 2's original developer, Human Head Studios If this report turns out to be true, the reason for the cover up is still unclear. Another email reveals Colantonio requested his team ignore queries from the press, after the rumour mill around Arkane's involvement on Prey 2 began churning back in May.Lucy O'Brien is Entertainment Editor at IGN AU. Follow her ramblings on IGN or @Luceobrien on Twitter.