subsidiary industry computer and video games founded february 2000 2000 02 headquarters timonium maryland united states key people brian reynolds tim train david inscore jason coleman alex schiffhauer ken rolston grant kirkhope products rise of nations series parent thq 2008 2009 38 studios 2009 2012 1 independent 2014 2016 nexon 2016 website bighugegames.com big huge games is a video game developer located in timonium maryland . the company was founded in february 2000 by four veteran 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 . contents 1 history 1.1 acquisition by thq 1.2 acquisition by 38 studios 1.3 formation of epic baltimore 1.4 revival acquisition by nexon 2 game engine 3 games developed 3.1 unreleased 4 references 5 external links history edit reynolds at e3 in 2003 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 edit 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 edit 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 edit 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 edit 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 2015 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 edit 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 edit 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 unreleased edit 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 . 19 ascendant xbox 360 playstation 3 microsoft windows 20 21 god the game wii 21 22 references edit fear ed may 27 2009 . 38 studios snaps up big huge games . develop . retrieved 2009 05 27 . dead link eddie makuch december 13 2013 . 38 studios auction finds no buyer for amalur mmo kingdoms of amalur reckoning sequel . gamespot . retrieved october 28 2014 . a b takahashi dean . brian reynolds revives big huge games and unveils first mobile strategy title dominations . venturebeat . retrieved 27 october 2014 . eddie makuch october 27 2014 . civilization rise of nations designer revives big huge games announces new title . gamespot . retrieved october 28 2014 . brian reynolds interview on gamespy . gamespy . 2002 05 02 . retrieved 2009 05 13 . itzkoopa 2007 02 20 . acclaimed oblivion designer heads to big huge games . totalgaming.net . retrieved 2007 05 03 . itzkoopa 2007 05 03 . big huge games rpg gets publisher date . totalgaming.net . retrieved 2007 05 03 . gamasutra thq acquires bhg music 4 games grant kirkhope resigns from rare joins big huge games as audio director mcwhertor michael 2009 03 18 . thq cuts down big huge games lets go two more . kotaku . dance scott 2009 05 27 . big huge games acquired by curt schilling s 38 studios . washington business journal . gilbert ben . 38 studios and big huge games lay off entire staffs update . joystiq . narcisse evan . 38 studios and big huge games shutting down update . big huge games resurrected as epic games baltimore 1 a b takahashi dean 2 april 2015 . dominations assaults clash of clans with a civilization like mobile strategy game . venturebeat . retrieved 2 april 2015 . nexon acquires dominations developer big huge games . venturebeat . retrieved 11 march 2016 . big huge engine . big huge games . archived from the original on 3 may 2007 . retrieved 2007 05 07 . dead link 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 . bhg and thq join hands . thq investor relations . 2007 05 03 . retrieved 2007 05 03 . a b 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 . bhg big huge games now working on wii title . 2007 08 28 . retrieved 2007 08 28 . external links edit official website big huge games profile on mobygames retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title big huge games & oldid 738608332 categories video game companies of the united statesinternational game developers association membersvideo game development companiescompanies established in 2000hidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from september 2016articles with dead external links from march 2010 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages catal deutschespa olfran aisitalianonederlandsportugu s t rk eti ng vi t edit links this page was last modified on 10 september 2016 at 00 40 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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