Fire scorches Human Head

  • By thorsen-ink, GameSpot
  • Posted Apr 23, 2007 2:23 pm PT

For years, fire has been the bane of Madison, Wisconsin, landmarks. In 1996, it leveled the legendary Hotel Washington complex. On New Year's Day 2001, it engulfed Ocayz Corral, the watering hole that was a national punk-rock landmark for nearly two decades. Now, flames have claimed...

For years, fire has been the bane of Madison, Wisconsin, landmarks. In 1996, it leveled the legendary Hotel Washington complex. On New Year's Day 2001, it engulfed Ocayz Corral, the watering hole that was a national punk-rock landmark for nearly two decades.

Now, flames have claimed another historic Madison landmark--one that housed one of the Midwest's preeminent independent game studios. On Friday night, the former railroad station that housed Human Head Studios was "destroyed" by fire, according to local media reports. It was an unfortunate turn of events for the Prey developer, which had just inked a deal to bring the next Marc Ecko game to next-generation consoles.

[UPDATE] Luckily, "Nobody was hurt in the fire," according to Human Head Community Liaison Jason Blair. "It started around 2:30 a.m. and no one was in any of the offices." Blair also promised the studio would soon set up shop elsewhere. "We'll bounce back--guaranteed," he said. "This week is all about regrouping, rebuilding, and getting everything back on track."

114 Comments

  • ColdGen

    Posted Dec 21, 2007 9:31 pm PT

    Hopefully their data is backed up off-site.

  • ColdGen

    Posted Aug 13, 2007 2:54 am PT

    Glad no-one was hurt! Will get into Prey now my XBox 360 HDD has been repaired and returned.

  • gamingprincess

    Posted May 4, 2007 3:27 pm PT

    u all are forgetting one thing. lst no one was hurt. two all the jobs that were lost and prey was a good game. oh im sure they will be back on the prey track soon.....

  • Metalhead-JJB

    Posted Apr 30, 2007 2:08 pm PT

    What a bummer! I'm a former Madisonian myself and only lived a few blocks away. Good luck and I hope them a speedy reorgainization!

  • DJ-Lafleur

    Posted Apr 27, 2007 4:38 pm PT

    what a shame, never played Prey, but still...

  • DesmondPills

    Posted Apr 27, 2007 8:06 am PT

    nothing will happen to them. everything is insured im sure when your dealing with the amount of hardware inside that studio. not to mention the bank they probably have.

  • mixhawkeye

    Posted Apr 26, 2007 12:19 pm PT

    I hate the title of this article

  • Fisheagle

    Posted Apr 25, 2007 9:37 pm PT

    Hope it doesn't affect your new deal in any way.

  • thewesman

    Posted Apr 25, 2007 8:25 pm PT

    "Allright, who left their computer on over night?"

  • kuda001

    Posted Apr 25, 2007 11:53 am PT

    THANK GOD WE'RE SAVED FROM ANOTHER MARC ECKO GAME BUT PREY WAS GOOD THOUGH

  • theflyinfur

    Posted Apr 25, 2007 9:30 am PT

    It was Jack Thompson. He hates video games and a game studio mysteriously burns down. All the evidence points to him. The connection is as clear as the connection between videogames and violence.

  • anyjabroni

    Posted Apr 25, 2007 7:36 am PT

    Marc Ecko SUX, Prey was AWSOME! But games aside, that's messed up. It's a good thing no one was hurt, I hope they back up all there work daily.

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Apr 25, 2007 5:29 am PT

    teh arson?

  • linnx88

    Posted Apr 25, 2007 4:35 am PT

    Hmmm lots of fires in woods and forests.... a natural occurance, lots of fires in office buldings and landmarks....insurance fraud?!

  • Merl57

    Posted Apr 25, 2007 3:52 am PT

    what a shame, but prey only got a 7. something so not absolutely terrible.

  • anjul

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 10:05 pm PT

    Good thing they already sealed that deal before the fire. Their insurance should cover most of the cost. Wonder what the next Marc Ecko game'll be....

  • racerx737

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 9:24 pm PT

    well at least no one was hurt. I wonder what started the fire?

  • r4v3gl0ry

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 8:40 pm PT

    Dang, that sucks. I hope they get everything back together and deliver more next-gen games...

  • Ice_man_1985

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 7:53 pm PT

    sad to hear this, and i was looking forward for prey 2 .

  • lithus

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 7:52 pm PT

    BILLNYE6983 says "Shut up, he's got 100X more style than you could ever have, althought his games do suck, but his clothes are still ballin.."

    Ballin? lol! How could you possibly know anything about "my" style. You don't. But I give you a "A" for effort at trying to hurt my feelings. For the record, his clothing line does suck. You know who else wears a 1foot by 2foot picture of a zoo animal on their chest....They're called toddlers. Atleast you admit his game sucked.

  • Slayervorge3000

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 6:45 pm PT

    That must of sucked to find out that their studio was destroyed by stupid fire.

  • wildsnipe

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 6:36 pm PT

    I feel sorry. I can empathize with them cause I know what it feels like to lose a house in a fire.

  • Mossaike

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 5:57 pm PT

    Prey wasn't my favorite game but it had an interesting storyline to it and I was looking forward to the next part. I hope they get a great fresh new start and wish them luck.

  • HYP3RD4SH_666

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 2:51 pm PT

    Sounds alot like arson. Guess they didn't like there games lol.

  • imautobot

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 12:11 pm PT

    This is a shame. I hope they had off site servers to backup their data.

  • Sydwynder

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 11:46 am PT

    The next Mark Ecko game? Did anyone play the first one?

  • ArfenZard15

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 11:22 am PT

    Damn what bad luck.

    I feel well sorry for them, must be awful!

  • druid2004

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 11:11 am PT

    Note to self: always make backups. don't keep backups in same place.

  • Bgrngod

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 9:57 am PT

    Insurance / Off-site Data Backups.

    Done and Done.

  • bka4u2c_basic

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 9:52 am PT

    Hopefully just a minor set back. I'm in the IT field and any place I've worked for kept backup tapes off-site, so data loss shouldn't be a concern. Good Luck!!!

    P.S. PREY was a great game!!

  • pandaramaster

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 5:55 am PT

    Oh they'll get back on their feet in no time I'm positive Good luck to them!

  • Sanguis_Malus

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 5:55 am PT

    Prey was a total let down, it looked decent but the play was mediocre at best !

  • Sheiko

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 5:46 am PT

    I bet there was a prescott somewhere in there...

  • tomgowen

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 5:08 am PT

    I'm very glad no one was injured. Hope that they had off-site backups.

    Heres hoping they get back up and running soon!

  • shocker-x-

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 3:53 am PT

    well if there was a Prey 2, im going to have to wait, ALOT longer now

  • SpazH3d

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 3:05 am PT

    Satan punished you for delaying both Prey and Duke Nukem .....sorry!

  • ScottyT

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 1:19 am PT

    Nappan, Knives2.
    I hope your livinly hood gets taken from you and then some laughs at your face

  • zsc4

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 12:51 am PT

    That's is sad, hopefully they will recover.

  • GrimGravy

    Posted Apr 24, 2007 12:10 am PT

    crazy world

  • Obi-Wan

    Posted Apr 23, 2007 11:08 pm PT

    Prey is an awesome awesome game.

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Apr 23, 2007 10:57 pm PT

    You have my condolences

  • Lumenadducere

    Posted Apr 23, 2007 10:17 pm PT

    Prey was decent, and I'd hate to see developers go down due to something like this. We need more, not less.

  • Doolum

    Posted Apr 23, 2007 10:15 pm PT

    Thats bad

  • t3h-

    Posted Apr 23, 2007 10:03 pm PT

    I'm glad that nobody got hurt.

  • anamnawshad

    Posted Apr 23, 2007 9:34 pm PT


    Hopefully they'll bounce back....

  • Warfust

    Posted Apr 23, 2007 9:25 pm PT

    Ouch that sucks, but if their IT staff was on top of things it is just a matter of buying new hardware and loading the backup tapes.

  • blank_wave13

    Posted Apr 23, 2007 9:23 pm PT

    That sucks, hopefully they can bounce back and bring some more great games.

  • hx0r1337

    Posted Apr 23, 2007 9:05 pm PT

    lol that sux i thought prey was an awesome game

  • FordFairlane

    Posted Apr 23, 2007 9:05 pm PT

    Most companies dealing in this much data have offsite backups for just such an emergency. Hopefully, everyone's safe and not too much progress was lost.

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