Big Huge Games

Big Huge Games is a video game developer located in Timonium, Maryland. The company was founded in February 2000 by four veteran video game industry developers: Tim Train, David Inscore, Jason Coleman and Brian Reynolds (lead designer of Alpha Centauri, et al.). Their first game, Rise of Nations, was a critical and commercial hit. The original studio became defunct in May 2012, but the name "Big Huge Games" was later reacquired by Reynolds and Train for their new venture (previously known as SecretNewCo).[2][3][4] The revived studio released the mobile game DomiNations on Android and iOS in April 2015.

Big Huge Games
Subsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedFebruary 2000 (2000-02)[lower-alpha 1]
Headquarters
Timonium, Maryland
,
United States
Key people
ProductsRise of Nations series
DomiNations
Parent
Websitebighugegames.com

History
Reynolds at E3 in 2003

The company was created in February 2000 by Tim Train, David Inscore, Jason Coleman and Brian Reynolds. Although Brian Reynolds was a founding member of Firaxis Games, he and the others left Firaxis to found a new company based on their desire to apply the complexity and concepts of the turn-based strategy genre to the real-time strategy genre.[5]

In February 2007, Big Huge Games announced that Ken Rolston, the lead designer behind The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, had come out of retirement to join the company as lead designer on an untitled role playing game (RPG).[6] Later that May it was announced that THQ would publish the title in 2009.[7] This marked the first title from Big Huge Games that was not distributed by Microsoft.

Acquisition by THQ

On January 15, 2008, THQ acquired the developer.[8]

On July 30, 2008, Grant Kirkhope joined the Big Huge Games team as an audio director. He had previously worked for Rare, composing for the Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark games (among others).[9]

On March 18, 2009, THQ announced that due to declining economic conditions, it would close Big Huge Games unless an outside buyer could be found in the next 60 days.[10]

Acquisition by 38 Studios

On May 27, 2009, 38 Studios announced that they were acquiring Big Huge Games and retaining 70 employees out of approximately 120 who were at THQ.[11]

From mid-2009 to January 2012, Big Huge Games developed a single player role playing game titled Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which was released in early February 2012 and published by Electronic Arts (EA) and 38 Studios for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The game is set in a fantasy world created with input from R A Salvatore and Todd McFarlane.

It was reported on May 24, 2012 that the studio and their parent company 38 Studios had laid off their entire staff.[12][13]

Formation of Epic Baltimore

In June 2012, Epic Games announced the opening of a new studio in Baltimore called Epic Baltimore. The studio consists of a significant portion of ex-Big Huge developers.[14] It was later renamed Impossible Studios. Impossible Studios was officially closed on February 8, 2013.[15]

Revival, Acquisition by Nexon

In October 2014, it was revealed that Reynolds and Train had acquired the name "Big Huge Games" at auction from the state of Rhode Island, which owned it following the bankruptcy of 38 Studios. This name was given to their new venture founded in 2013, which was formerly known as SecretNewCo. The new studio developed a game for mobile platforms called DomiNations, for release on iOS and Android.[16] It is published by Nexon's mobile gaming group.[3] and was released for Android and iOS in April 2015.[16]

The game had been a major success; as of March 2016, it had been downloaded over 19 million times. On March 9, 2016, Nexon announced that it had acquired Big Huge Games; the studio will continue to produce new titles and maintain DomiNations.[17]

Game engine

Big Huge Games made use of their internally developed game engine, the Big Huge Engine, in both Rise of Nations and Catan. The engine features support for a variety of applications and technologies, including physics, artificial intelligence, animation, and others.[18]

Games developed
Release
Date		 Title Genre Notes
2003 Rise of Nations Real-time strategy
2004 Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots Real-time strategy Expansion pack
2006 Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends Real-time strategy
2007 Catan Turn-based strategy Xbox Live Arcade
2007 Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties Real-time strategy Expansion pack
2012 Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Action role-playing game Co-developed with 38 Studios
2015 DomiNations Turn-based strategy Co-developed with Nexon
2020 Arcane Showdown[19][20] Real-time strategy

Unreleased

At the time of their move from THQ to 38 Studios, Big Huge Games was working on two large game projects, which are now canceled.[21]

Notes
  1. The current Big Huge Games is formed in 2013 as SecretNewCo., a separate company formed by Nexon, with the Big Huge Games brand used since 2016.

References
  1. Fear, Ed (May 27, 2009). "38 Studios snaps up Big Huge Games". Develop. Archived from the original on November 1, 2014. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
  2. Eddie Makuch (December 13, 2013). "38 Studios auction finds no buyer for Amalur MMO, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning sequel". GameSpot. Archived from the original on October 21, 2014. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
  3. Takahashi, Dean. "Brian Reynolds revives Big Huge Games and unveils first mobile strategy title: DomiNations". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 27 October 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  4. Eddie Makuch (October 27, 2014). "Civilization, Rise of Nations Designer Revives Big Huge Games, Announces New Title". GameSpot. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
  5. "Brian Reynolds interview on GameSpy". GameSpy. 2002-05-02. Archived from the original on 2008-10-17. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
  6. iTZKooPA (2007-02-20). "Acclaimed 'Oblivion' Designer Heads To Big Huge Games". Totalgaming.net. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  7. iTZKooPA (2007-05-03). "Big Huge Games RPG Gets Publisher, Date". Totalgaming.net. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  8. "Gamasutra: THQ Acquires BHG". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2008-01-15.
  9. "Music 4 Games: Grant Kirkhope resigns from Rare, joins Big Huge Games as Audio Director". Archived from the original on 2008-08-13. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
  10. McWhertor, Michael (2009-03-18). "THQ Cuts Down Big Huge Games, Lets Go Two More". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2009-03-22. Retrieved 2009-03-18.
  11. Dance, Scott (2009-05-27). "Big Huge Games acquired by Curt Schilling's 38 Studios". Washington Business Journal. Archived from the original on 2009-05-30. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
  12. Gilbert, Ben. "38 Studios and Big Huge Games lay off entire staffs [update]". Joystiq. Archived from the original on 2012-07-25. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
  13. Narcisse, Evan. "38 Studios and Big Huge Games Shutting Down [UPDATE]". Archived from the original on 2012-05-27. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
  14. "Big Huge Games Resurrected as "Epic Games Baltimore"". Archived from the original on 2014-09-24. Retrieved 2012-06-07.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-02-10. Retrieved 2013-02-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. Takahashi, Dean (2 April 2015). "DomiNations assaults Clash of Clans with a Civilization-like mobile strategy game". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  17. "Nexon acquires DomiNations developer Big Huge Games". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  18. "Big Huge Engine". Big Huge Games. Archived from the original on 3 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  19. "Arcane Showdown on Steam". Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  20. "Arcane Showdown - Apps on Google Play". Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  21. "Big Huge Games Experiences Big Huge Media Leak, Oblivion Designer's Game Reportedly Canceled". Chris Fayler, Shack News. 2009-04-09. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
  22. "BHG and THQ join hands". THQ Investor Relations. 2007-05-03. Archived from the original on 2012-06-29. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  23. Plunkett, Luke (April 9, 2009). "What Were Big Huge Games Working On (And Have They Found A Buyer)?". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 12 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  24. "BHG Big Huge Games now working on Wii title". 2007-08-28. Archived from the original on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2007-08-28.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.