Why did Weyland-Yutani deny the exsistence of Predators?

[Speedy_J]

I'm sure you remember during the Single Player campaign, in the mission text logs, there was constant denial about how Predators were part of the incident, why was that?

[Joss Blaney]

Laaaaate reply.  First post for me however, so huzza!

From what I could tell from the in-game context, Weyland-Yutani is clearly aware of Predators and has been for some time.  Their existence has never been publicly announced however, and WY likes it this way.  Whether or not the AVP movies' storylines are canon, The Company has made some form of contact with Predators in the past, or at least their technology, and may have even advanced their own R&D from Predator assets.  I believe that since Predators are a very powerful species that could pose a massive threat to humanity, WY's intelligence spooks want to keep their own hand hidden until it is forced into play.  I'm sure that they're afraid that humans could get themselves into a lot of trouble if they attempted to pursue "first contact" with a hostile species.  As that log in the final Alien level shows, people such as "Dr. Chris Lund" would like to believe any being more advanced than us is clearly morally and culturally beyond us as well.

I liked this element of denial in AvP2.  Its very fitting of Weyland Yutani.  Apparently, Xenomorphs are now known to at least the Colonial Marines, so they couldn't quite keep the lid on that one.  Predators, however, are a different story.  I would love to see Corporal Harrison's debriefing with the board of review for "The Incident".  Having seen and killed a Predator on LV-1201, he must have been very frustrated to have the suits come up with reasons for why he must have been making it up.  Very reminiscent of Ripley's interrogation in the beginning of Aliens.

[Kimarhi]

I took it differently in that WY wasn't really aware of what Eisenberg and Rykov were doing, kind of like the company not knowing what Burke was up to.  Supported by Eisenberg and his conversation with the auditor at the beginning of the SP campaign. 

Once things started going to hell and the POC and pods were overrun they simply didn't believe that anything more than the xenos were needed to cause its collapse.

WY didn't deny the Nostromo incident because they were covering anything up, they denied it because they had no idea what was up and Ripley had no physical evidence.

Of course one could argue that the company simply was covering its tracks and protecting both the predator technology/pilot technology and the xenos from rival exploitation, but that would just be a theory without any proof.

Obviously both the Marines and independent PMCs like the Iron Bears would have some instances of crossover contact with the Predator because Rykov was with both organizations and was nearly paralyzed by the encounter with the pred and was known to have told both organizations about what happened.

[Joss Blaney]

Yeah, I see what you mean.  I'm sure not everyone in a three piece suit at WY knows all of the company's dirty little secrets and I'm sure a lot of the members of the board simply didn't believe in a third race's presence.  Some of their higher ups, however, MUST be aware of Predator existence.  If Keyes (Garey Busey) from Predator 2 and his fellow government spooks were onto Predators in the early 1990's, I can't believe the ultimate intergalactic evil corporation wouldn't have been following them as well, over 200 years later.

I'm with you however, in that the actual events on LV-1201 were largely hidden from WY.  In many of the campaign notes, Eisenberg and Rykov are shown going to great lengths to cover up all of their own off-the-books projects.