A surprise Steam update for Prototype broke the mods making the 16-year old game playable on modern systems—but could hint at a potential remaster

Alex Mercer leaping over a bunch of cars while pursued by helicopters in Prototype. — (Image credit: Activision)

Prototype was a landmark release in videogame sweatshirts, featuring a permanently hooded, perpetually grumpy man harboring a mutagenic virus and powerful 2009-era angst. Admittedly, I'd be pretty cheesed off if I was left filled to the brim with bioweaponry against my will—until my nasty meat tentacles could fling helicopters around, anyway. All of life's troubles seem small when your meat tentacles can fling helicopters around.

The higher powers at Activision never saw fit to grant Prototype and its sequel any further follow-ups, leaving the series to live on solely in the brief recollections of kicking enemies into low earth orbit. Until this week, that is. 24 hours ago, Prototype and Prototype 2 both received unprompted Steam updates, each around 600 MB.

Alex Mercer attacking a mutant enemy with an elongated whip arm in Prototype. — (Image credit: Activision)

Neither update was accompanied by any patch notes or Steam news post explaining what changed. Their most obvious effect, however, was breaking everything for anyone who was still playing Prototype. Playing the game on modern systems all but requires mods like PrototypeFix to fix persistent crashes and hardware compatibility issues. Because we live in a cruel world, those surprise shadow updates left PrototypeFix busted.

Luckily, the mod's creator quickly deployed an update so devotees of Alex Mercer and his horrible, horrible body didn't have to endure any prolonged suffering. Those updates did more than just annoy roughly 100 people worldwide, however.

They also included what could be an indication that there's a Prototype remaster being cooked up.

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Updated credits for Prototype on Steam, showing mention of "Ubisoft Connect version." — (Image credit: Activision)

As you might expect, it didn't take long before modders and dataminers started picking apart what exactly changed as a result of those 600 megabytes, discovering development testing maps that hadn't been in previous versions. While debug maps are always a delight, what's more interesting are the unexpected additions to Prototype's credits.

Where the credits previously ended, there's now a series of new names and studios. First, there's credits for contributors to a "Ubisoft Connect version"—which doesn't seem to exist, based on my frantic googling. Next, the credits feature staff from Beenox and Demonware, a pair of Activision support studios.

And then there's the real kicker: At the end of the updated credits comes Iron Galaxy Studios, a studio with a wide-ranging history of porting and remastering for PC releases like the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: 3 + 4.

Credits updates for a 16 year old game obviously fall far short of an official confirmation. But if you were inclined to speculate about a potential Prototype remaster, Iron Galaxy's name makes compelling food for thought. We'll have to wait and see.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.

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