Mystery Bethesda studio behind canceled Prey 2 now working on Redfall

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The developers formerly known as Human Head are contributing to Arkane's latest

Redfall screenshot
(Image credit: Bethesda)

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.

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'.

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.