Rune 2 publisher Ragnarok Game LLC has sued Bethesda and ZeniMax for allegedly helping to sabotage the game’s launch.
As reported by PC Gamer, this is a continuation of a lawsuit Ragnarok filed against Rune 2 developer Human Head Studios, which announced its closure immediately after the game’s launch – only to reemerge as Roundhouse Studios under Bethesda Softworks.
Ragnarok claims that Human Head intentionally abandoned Rune 2 and handed over pre-release keys to Bethesda and ZeniMax, allowing them to “see for themselves the threat that Rune 2 posed to their hit franchise, Skyrim/Elder Scrolls.”
The lawsuit further states:
Two weeks prior to launch of Rune 2, Zenimax secretly formed a new subsidiary, Roundhouse Studios LLC (‘Roundhouse’), and used that company to purchase all of Human Head’s equipment and take over its leases. That equipment contained Plaintiffs’ trade secrets, the source code and materials for Rune 2 and Oblivion Song. In that same time frame, in order to complete a de facto merger, Zenimax arranged to have all employees dismissed from Human Head and hired by ZeniMax.
One early review of Rune 2 described it as ‘Skyrim on steroids.’ The hit video game Skyrim is part of Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls franchise and was developed and published by Bethesda and its affiliates. This review signaled to Bethesda and ZeniMax that one of their biggest cash cows was under threat.
Ragnarok claims that Human Head did everything it possibly could to ensure that it wasn’t able to support Rune 2 at launch, including refusal to hand over the source code.
[Source: PC Gamer]
