Ragnarok Games claims Bethesda sabotaged Rune 2 because of the 'threat' it posed to The Elder Scrolls

What you need to know

• Ragnarok Games sued the now-closed Human Head Studios in December 2019 for breach of contract.
• Human Head Studios shut down and the staff were all hired by ZeniMax as a new team, Roundhouse Studios.
• Ragnarok Games has amended its lawsuit to include ZeniMax and Bethesda.

Back in December 2019, the now-defunct Human Head Studios was sued by Ragnarok Game LLC. The charges included but were not limited to breach of contract and fraudulent concealment, seeking restitution of "no less than $100 million." The lawsuit also noted the loss of the source code for Rune II, though this source code was returned on a hard drive shortly after.

Human Head Studios closed down in November 2019 while the staff were all hired at a new studio built by ZeniMax and Bethesda called Roundhouse Studios. Now, Ragnarok Game LLC is amending its lawsuit to include ZeniMax and Bethesda.

As spotted by PC Gamer, the updated complaint now includes Bethesda and ZeniMax, while it states that "In an act of utter bad faith and contractual breach of confidentiality requirements, Human Head secretly provided Bethesda and Zenimax with "keys" that permitted it to play a confidential, pre-release version of Rune II. This enabled Bethesda and Zenimax to see for themselves the threat that Rune II posed to their hit franchise, Skyrim/Elder Scrolls. Plaintiffs were never informed of this betrayal."

We'll continue to cover future updates on this case. It's unclear exactly how things will proceed now that Microsoft is acquiring ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks is joining Xbox.