Rune 2 Developer Human Head Studios Shuts Down, Immediately Sets Up Shop Under Bethesda as Roundhouse Studios

[Raevenlord]

Well, this is something new. Human Head Studios, who have developed and just released Rune 2 yesterday on the Epic Games Store as an exclusive release, today announced their studio was shutting down. At the same time, Bethesda announced it was founding a new game studio, Roundhouse Studios, which would be fully populated by the Human Head Studios' staff, left unemployed from the closure of that developing label. While it's obviously great that in effect nobody was left unemployed... Does this "make sense much"?

It does. However, there are some interesting tidbits to this story. One of the more pressing questions is: how will Rune 2 be supported in the future? That question wasn't addressed by now Roundhouse Studios Creative Director Chris Rhinehart - we just assume the game has been released in an "as is" state and it doesn't matter whether there are some breaking bugs in that release. Any reported bug will be filed under "no developer found; won't fix". There are also some more interesting nuances to this deal, though. You might remember Human Head Studios previously worked on Prey 2, with Bethesda acting as publisher, but was removed from the project after the studio declined Bethesda's offer to buy Human Head Studios. This action cost the studio the IP, and led them towards development of Rune 2. However, all of that bad blood has seemingly been left behind them, according to press releases from both parties. You can read those after the break.

"Sadly, we had to wind down the business of Human Head Studios and close its doors. This was particularly devastating due to the passion and creativity of the team we'd assembled. We reached out to our friends at Bethesda for help, and they saw that same creativity and passion in our team. With the formation of Roundhouse Studios, Bethesda offered every employee of Human Head a position at the new company. We are excited our team will remain together, pursuing the work we love."

Chris Rhinehart, Creative Director, Roundhouse Studios

"While sorry to hear of their challenges as Human Head Studios, we were excited by the opportunity to bring under the Bethesda umbrella this talented, established development team. We are delighted that the entire staff will remain together and is now part of the Bethesda family."

Todd Vaughn, Senior Vice President of Development at Bethesda

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[phanbuey]

Bethesda needs something... maybe this is a great move.

 

[Easo]

No way this was not planned way in advance.

 

[E-curbi]

No way this was not planned way in advance.

100% Happenstance.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I used to own the original Rune. I enjoyed the game and my brother really liked it. Sadly, it was one of the many games my younger brother ruined years ago....at least my brother remember he trashed the CD/box/artwork and a few years back purchased a copy of Rune Classic on Steam for me when he saw it.

I didn't know that a Rune 2 was released, let alone in the works. Too bad it's tied into an exclusivity deal....I don't support any games that do that. Shame, too. Another one to add to the handful of games out there that I won't ever play.

 

[HisDivineOrder]

I used to own the original Rune. I enjoyed the game and my brother really liked it. Sadly, it was one of the many games my younger brother ruined years ago....at least my brother remember he trashed the CD/box/artwork and a few years back purchased a copy of Rune Classic on Steam for me when he saw it.

I didn't know that a Rune 2 was released, let alone in the works. Too bad it's tied into an exclusivity deal....I don't support any games that do that. Shame, too. Another one to add to the handful of games out there that I won't ever play.

You should watch the "launch" trailer before being too broken up.

 

[Mescalamba]

You should watch the "launch" trailer before being too broken up.

Just watched 6 mins of gameplay in fastforwards-skip fashion. Nope, nope and nope. Definitely not Rune.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

SO basically the dead studio is saying no dont buy it?

 

[Capitan Harlock]

First they release their game on BANANA store , but maybe they didn't sell a lot of copies and only got that cut they all swarm about but was not enough.
So the plan b was to f who got their game on BANANA store and sail under Bethesda that is not gonna be saved until DOOM eternal comes out .
This is a mess and i wonder how this people make money in the first place.

 

[Kohl Baas]

Too bad it's tied into an exclusivity deal....I don't support any games that do that. Shame, too. Another one to add to the handful of games out there that I won't ever play.

All games are tied into an exclusivity deal in one way or another. I've yet to see a single game available on every existing platforms not forcing you to buy another that you didn't have.

 

[neatfeatguy]

All games are tied into an exclusivity deal in one way or another. I've yet to see a single game available on every existing platforms not forcing you to buy another that you didn't have.

Any game that gets paid to only be available to one location to be sold for X amount of time is an exclusive contract. I won't support those games.

If a developer makes a game and decides they only want to sell the game on a specific platform, that's a different story. No one is paying them to avoid all other distributors for X amount of time

 

[Mescalamba]

I wonder if ppl would be this hostile if CDPR made it exclusive to GOG.

Want bet that nobody would mind?

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I wonder if ppl would be this hostile if CDPR made it exclusive to GOG.

Want bet that nobody would mind?

hold let me put my mind reading cap on... wtf is cdpr?

 

[GlacierNine]

hold let me put my mind reading cap on... wtf is cdpr?

CD Projekt Red, the people who run Good Old Games, made all of the Witcher games, and are currently making Cyberpunk 2077.

No need to be condescending just because you don't recognise one of the most well known companies in PC gaming.