What you need to know
- Human Head Studios, the developers of games like Prey (2006), The Quiet Man and Rune II, have closed down.
- Bethesda Softworks hired the entire team and has announced Roundhouse Studios.
- Roundhouse Studios is beginning work immediately on "unannounced projects."
Human Head Studios, the developer of games such as Prey (2006), The Quiet Man and Rune II, has closed its doors. That's the bad news. The good news is the entire team have new jobs as Bethesda rehired everyone at Human Head Studios and has opened a new studio called Roundhouse Studios.
"Sadly, we had to wind down the business of Human Head Studios and close its doors, which was particularly devastating due to the passion and creativity of the team we'd assembled," said Chris Rhinehart, Creative Director of Roundhouse Studios. "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, as part of a company we already know and admire."
"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," said Todd Vaughn, Senior Vice President of Development at Bethesda. "We are delighted that the entire staff will remain together and is now part of the Bethesda family."
While we don't know what this new studio is working on yet, the press release does note that the studio is beginning work immediately on "unannounced projects." This could be any one of a variety of genres, as the team at Roundhouse Studios has worked on a wide variety of games. Bethesda Softworks has continued growing over the last couple of years, integrating new studios as a part of Bethesda Game Studios in 2018 and acquiring Alpha Dog Games earlier in 2019.
