Engineering empathy: simulation and species cosmopolitanism in Prey

The posthumanist concepts of ‘becoming companion species’ and ‘species cosmopolitanism’ present a fundamental challenge to anthropocentric paradigms. Video games, as interactive media, present a unique capacity to simulate and interrogate these ethical frameworks. This study draws on the posthumanist theories of Pramod Nayar and Rosi Braidotti to argue that Arkane Studios’ Prey (2017) functions as a sophisticated ethical simulator. The game uses its ludic systems to operationalise species cosmopolitanism, transforming the player from a spectator into a complicit agent within a posthuman crisis. The analysis demonstrates how Prey dispenses with human exceptionalism through its core mechanic: the Neuromod. This technology of xenotransplantation hybridises the player-character, framing hybridity as a deracinating ‘becoming with’ the alien Typhon. It examines the Typhon as autopoietic systems and embodiments of Braidottian Zoe, whose lack of mirror neurons creates an ontological impasse. Thus, the player’s journey towards a cosmopolitan horizon is measured in the tangible, often unsettling, integration of the Typhon’s radical alterity into their own embodied capacities for action within the game world. It contends that Prey is a ludic pedagogy that compels the player to perform and internalise the very ethical negotiations required for a future built on symbiotic coexistence rather than human sovereignty.