Rune II - abandoned by Human Head Studios, still causing drama - coming to Steam on November 13th

Why would Bethesda feel threatened by what is essentially a lame survival-RPG-clone oddly named "Rune".
Neither what Rune II actually was nor what it should have been (you know, a game that actually resembles Rune) are very similar to any Elder Scrolls game.

This makes 0 sense.

 

A hostile take over of a privately held company? It was just a purchase.

 

bethesda knew it was comming, hence rushing to sell to microsoft

 

You also have to remember that they were owned by Zenimax. More than likely:

A) Zenimax Execs got Beth mgmt to do a lot of shady shit over the years
B) Zenimax Execs saw the writing on the wall that something was coming down the line
C) Zenimax Execs decided it was too much hassle / risk to deal with potentially diminishing returns of a video game company

One thing you have to remember with corp execs nowadays is that it's always about the short term. They don't give a fuck about anything past the 18 month mark traditionally, partly because the market is really too fluid and fast (it would require a shitton of effort), lack of sustainable leadership (a lot of execs only last a few years before getting the boot / moving on), and pure greed (salaries are limited due to tax structure, so they get a minimum bonus to make up for that, PLUS a scaling bonus for hitting certain marks each period).

Essentially, they're encouraged to do whatever it takes to make money NOW NOW NOW, even if it means a potential lawsuit down the line. After all, they probably won't be around to deal with the headache of the aftermath, and if they are they can always just sell the troublesome asset, net a profit, and let it be someone else's problem.

 

Of course a real successor to Rune was just too fucking much to ask for... I guess DS is the closest, in a way.

 

Tell me the "Rune" everybody talks about isn't Rune: Viking Warlord

 

That's the console port of the Rune everybody talks about.
No idea if it is a good or a bad one.

 

Not quite, that's the butchered PS2 version.