Ragnarok Sues Roundhouse Studios Over Concealed Bethesda Acquisition

It seems like, for one bad reason or another, Bethesda can't stay out of the headlines for long. Ragnarok Game LLC has filed a complaint with the California Superior Court against Roundhouse Studios, which up until recently had been known as Human Head Studios. The complaint alleges that Roundhouse Studios is guilty of breaching its contract with Raganrok, fraudulent concealment, and unfair business practices, among a host of other scathing allegations.

For a bit of background, Human Head Studios had been developing Rune 2 for years, with Ragnarok slated to publish it. Their partnership grew shaky right before the game launched on Nov. 12 on the Epic Games Store. Human Head had become unresponsive, and five days before launch, it informed Ragnarok that it was shutting down, forcing the publisher to shoulder any post-launch development and support.

The day after release, Human Head closed its doors, only to quickly reopen them as Roundhouse Studios, a Bethesda-owned development house. Ragnarok only found out about this around the same time everyone else did. In other words, Ragnarok wasn't informed that Human Head was looking to be acquired by competitors. The lawsuit alleges that the announcement was timed to "cause maximum damage" to the well-being of the publisher as well as Rune 2's future.

Furthermore, Ragnarok has asked former Human Head, now Roundhouse employees to turn over all the finalized game code, which allegedly belongs to the publisher per their agreement. Not only has the company previously known as Human Head refused to do so, the suit alleges, it's also tried to alter the code and publish it onto the Epic Store. It's unclear whether or not this code was altered with malicious intent.

So far, Bethesda has refused to comment on the matter, despite outlets like PC Gamer reaching out.