Rune II developer closes day after release and merges into new Bethesda studio
Bethesda is opening a new game studio called Roundhouse Studios. The studio is made up of staff from Human Head Studios, which closed on Wednesday. On Tuesday, that studio released its game Rune II. Human Head and Bethesda have a checkered history.
On Wednesday it was announced that Human Head Studios, the developer behind the 2006 game Prey, would close its doors. However, the studio was revived almost immediately after the help of Bethesda was called in. Bethesda offered Human Head staff a job at a new game studio: Roundhouse Studios. The new studio opens its doors immediately in the US state of Wisconsin.
A day before Human Head closed its doors, the developer released its last game: Rune II. This is a multiplayer game with elements from Norse mythology. Chris Rhinehart, co-founder of Human Head and now creative director at Roundhouse Studios, said he was delighted to see the Human Head team continue to work together.
Rune II, the last game of Human Head
Human Head has previously collaborated with Bethesda. That didn’t go well, GameKings writes. The studio has been working on two Prey games, the first of which was published by 2K Games. Prey was based on the iD Tech 4 engine, which was created by id Software. At the time, id Software was not part of Zenimax, the current parent company of Bethesda. The first Prey game came out in 2006 and received good reviews.
The development process of Prey 2 was less smooth. The game would be published by Bethesda and Zenimax, after the rights to the Prey series came into the hands of Bethesda. The game was supposed to be released in 2012. However, development of Prey 2 was discontinued. At the time, Bethesda said the game didn’t meet the publisher’s quality standards, but in an interview with IGN, writer Jason Blair argued that the decision had a different reason.
According to sources, the problems started after the successful Prey 2 unveiling at E3 2011. Bethesda said it was satisfied with Human Head’s work and promised the studio extra development time to fill the game world with extra missions. The last rough sides of the game also had to be finished. The game was already playable, but was never released. Prey 2 gameplay footage appeared online last year on Twitter.
Reportedly, around Prey 2 development, Bethesda tried to buy the studio. Human Head was not interested in a takeover. The studio was afraid to limit its creative freedom by committing to a single publisher. Because of this, Bethesda would have made the development process of Prey 2 more difficult. According to Bethesda, Prey 2 suddenly needed ‘a lot of work’, and the game left something to be desired. The promised extra development time was not given and Human Head received no more money from the publisher. Bethesda also came up with new requirements for the game. Bethesda’s Pete Hines denies that the publisher attempted to buy Human Head, saying the game simply “wasn’t good enough.”
By contract, Human Head was required to work on Prey 2 and the studio was not allowed to take on any other projects. Money was running out, though, so Human Head helped develop BioShock Infinite and Defiance in the meantime. The studio ceased work on Prey 2 and continued with its own projects after the Bethesda contract expired in 2012. Bethesda transferred the development of Prey 2 to Arkane Studios. This was vehemently denied at first, but later turned out to be true. A Prey reboot came out in 2017; of the original intended Prey 2, little remained in practice.