Currently, the lawsuit stated that Human Head studios did not reveal its pending acquisition by Bethesda, and now they wouldn’t return Rune II assets. Saying the launch of the Viking action-RPG Rune II was impressive would be a little exaggerating.
It started on November 12, when the game went live on the Epic Games Store only for Human Head Studios to abandon the game in November 2013, literally the same door they came back to the game but this time as Bethesda-owned Roundhouse Studios.
So the next day, the publisher of Rune II, Ragnarok Game reassured fans that though they lost a developer, the game would continue to actively supported along with the planned post-launch content. They went on to say this wasn’t their expectation by saying in a statement ‘we found out about this news when you did.’
However, Ragnarok allegedly said Human Head in a post today in the Rune II forum, stating that the studio refused to give the final source code and the game assets, despite several requests to submit the necessary information. On that note, Ragnarok Games made decisions by filing a lawsuit against the studio.
The lawsuit clearly states that the development did not go smoothly. They said, ‘for instance, the initial schedule set which was 11 ‘milestones’ but due to Human Head lackluster management, errors, and delays, which ultimately stretched to 23 milestones, of which Ragnarok had to pay for.’
They also said that Human Head Studio suddenly stopped communicating and unavailable for a couple of weeks before the launch of Rune II. And that on November November 7, three days before the final release, Human Head’s ex-COO Ben Gokey told his plight to Ragnarok that the studio was closing—but didn’t tell Ragnarok that Bethesda had paid a lump sum for Human Head Studios.
The new Roundhouse Studios and Human Head have the exact business address ‘1741 Commercial Ave, Madison, Wisconsin. The same employees of Human Head studios and heads in the same physical space were replicated as Bethesda’s Roundhouse Studios just a few days after the launch of Rune II‘ according to the lawsuit.
Ragnarok was caught unawares of these developments and only was aware from the press, also with the audience. What is surprising here is Ragnarok’s effort to reach out to Human Head Studio’s COO on November November 8 to ask about the employees, Gokey said that would be a problem. Still, the issues he didn’t mention was that those employees are on the verge of becoming Bethesda employees.
The issue now is Human Head Studios is refusing to hand over the final source code of Rune II and its assets so that Ragnarok would make further payments for Human Head’s Unfinished deliverables. The lawsuit also states that though Bethesda now owns human Head Studios, and against their initial publisher’s instructions. Human Head did not only keep their part of the agreement, but they also uploaded and tried to launch a refashioned and unaccepted Rune II build to the Epic Games Store Staging.
Finally, Ragnarok lawsuit demands the return of the game assets and final source code (property), the restoration of their financial reimbursement, and at least a sum of $100 million in compensation. Until now, Bethesda representative hasn’t replied to the current situation.
What could happen next? Let’s hope it all ends well because Rune II is too good of a game to ignore!!
