Human Head Studios, the developer of the original Prey, is shutting down. It's been around since the late '90s, but action RPG Rune 2, which launched on the Epic Games Store yesterday and was meant to be due out on Steam next year, will be its final game. It won't, however, be the end of the team.
"After 22 great years of making games as an independent studio, economic realities have forced us to make the decision to wind down the company and close its doors," community manager Katherine Stull wrote in the blog update. "But while we are closing the book on Human Head, we are not closing the book on the amazing team we have assembled."
Human Head reached out the Bethesda, and impressively the entire staff were offered jobs, and a new studio has been formed out of the Human Head team. Roundhouse Studios will be working on some mystery projects.
It's not clear where this leaves the future of Rune 2. It only came out yesterday, and preorders couldn't have been great if Human Head is closing immediately after. With online co-op and PvP, you'd expect a degree of ongoing support, but with the developer (and presumably the publisher, as it was a business entity created by Human Head and its financial partner) gone, that doesn't seem likely.
Update: Rune 2's publisher, Ragnarok, has released a statement expressing shock at Human Head's closure. "We found out about this news when you did," the publisher wrote. The publisher has promised to continue support for the game.
