Mystery Bethesda studio behind canceled Prey 2 now working on Redfall

Bethesda and Arkane have confirmed that Roundhouse Studios is assisting in development on Redfall.

The detail was actually confirmed in a tweet alongside the new gameplay footage from the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase earlier this month, but in the hustle and bustle of not-E3, the info slipped under the radar.

In a new message emailed to fans, co-creative director Harvey Smith says that "the team at Arkane Austin (along with our partners at Roundhouse) are pouring everything we've got into making Redfall the best game it can be, both solo and co-op."

Roundhouse Studios was founded in 2019, though it's actually existed since 1997. As Human Head Studios, the company was probably best known for the 2006 game Prey. But during a legal dispute with publisher Ragnarok Game LLC over Rune II, Human Head shut down, but within days most of the studio's developers were working under Bethesda under the name Roundhouse.

Exactly what Roundhouse has been working on has remained a mystery since then, and Microsoft's buyout of Bethesda (and parent company ZeniMax) did not shed any additional light on what to expect.

We still don't know if Roundhouse is working on anything of its own outside of Redfall. Human Head was working on Prey 2 under Bethesda until it was canceled in 2014. Arkane eventually released a new, well-loved game under the Prey name, but Human Head's Prey 2 remains one of gaming's biggest 'what might have beens'.

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