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Two readers have sent in word which concludes Rune: Halls of Valhalla, the expansion for the Viking action game, is now finished and simply waiting for a publisher to pick it up. As you may recall, the original Rune was published by Gathering of Developers, a subsidiary of Take 2. Now MacSoft has taken over publishing any of Take 2's Mac games, it leaves Rune: HoV in limbo.

Frustrated Mac gamers also awaiting the 1.07 Rune patch have tried to take out their struggles on Westlake Interactive, though it appears the porting company is completely not at fault. Andrew Plucker wrote in to say that Tim Gerritson of Human Head (the developers of the original game) posted to fan forums to clarify the situation. Here's what he had to say:

Gathering of Developers has divested itself of all of its Mac holdings, as some of you are aware. Another publisher
has picked up the Gathering Mac holdings. However, HOV Mac was not part of that deal, and Gathering is no longer
doing Mac product going forward.

This leaves the product, unfortunately, in limbo. Westlake has completed the game, and it is ready for release.
However, they are the not the rightsholders to Rune. As rightsholders Human Head Studios, Inc. has gone to Take
Two to get final resolution on the Mac version (as Take Two has first rights to the game under contract). If Take Two
doesn't take up the publishing, we already have a firm offer from a Mac specific publisher and another waiting in the
wings to take up publication.

Westlake has taken a lot of flak on this release. However, they have held up their end of the bargain and delivered a
good game, which Human Head has approved for release. Unfortunately, both Human Head's and Westlake's hands
are tied until the publisher issue is resolved. We know you want this game out, and so do we. We are working as
quickly as we can to resolve it, but there are contractual obligations here that have to be abided by. This game will
come out, it's just a matter of when. As soon as we can make an announcement as to the final publisher and release
date, we will put out the word right here.

We thank you very much for your continued patience and for your support of the community as a whole. Obviously
this is not the way we wanted this product released, but we are working hard at using this situation to provide for
much better distribution than was originally planned by Gathering.

Tim Gerritson Post on Mac Rune

Westlake Interactive Web Site

Gathering of Developers

Human Head Studios

Westlake Interactive

Rune

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