big-huge-games posts

Over a year ago we did a feature article about all those games that were currently known to be in development but were unannounced (and did a sequel adding even more of those games a few months later). We referred to them as "Black Ops Games".

Since those two articles have been released there have been lots of developments. So it seems appropriate to look back now on our previous two articles to find out which games on the list have been revealed, which ones are still secret and which ones we can now add to the "Black Ops" list. First, we will take a look back at the games on our first two Black Ops game lists that have since been officially announced or now known to have been canceled.

It's been some time since now former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling announced that he was forming 38 Studios, a game development company that is working on a fantasy MMO game with the code name "Copernicus". Since then the game itself has stayed mysterious while 38 Studios made a major acquisition this year when they bought the development studio Big Huge Games from publisher THQ.

The Boston Globe web site has an update on what's going on with the company. The article has an actual target day for the release of 'Copernicus" saying that 38 Studios is targeting December 2010 for its tentative release. However the article also points out that any AAA MMO game needs a ton of money to develop it to completion. So far Schilling has been the company's biggest investor but has failed to attract any other outside investors to help out.

Update: Our sister site Joystiq has received official word from 38 Studios that the release date mentioned in the Boston Globe story is incorrect and there is no set release date. However, 28 Studios is planning to finally release details about the game sometime in 2010.

Earlier this month Big Huge Games was saved from being shut down by its owner THQ via a purchase by 38 Studios. However it appears that one of the developer's main co-founders, Brian Reynolds, has decided to depart Big Huge Games anyway for other interest.

Today the social web site gaming company Zynga announced that Reynolds will become their chief designer creating new games for sites like Facebook and MySpace. Prior to founding Big Huge Games, which created Rise of Nations, Reynolds was also a co-founder of Firaxis Games with Sid Meier where he was the main designer behind Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

The PC game download service Gametap continues to add classic PC game titles from Microsoft's publishing catalog. Today the site is scheduled to add Rise of Nations, the historical RTS game from developer Big Huge Games. The 2003 released title was the first game from the developer who later released a follow-up, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends. In 2008 the company was bought by THQ but just a few weeks ago 38 Studios announced it was acquiring the studio.

Gametap will also offer the fantasy action-RPG title Sacred Gold as part of their free-to-play game tier. The title will remain free on the service for the next week..

Whew! What a month May was. Thanks in part to E3 happening in the first week of June there were quite a few new game announcements may in the weeks prior to E3 2009. However there were also some non-E3 related stories to tell in the last 31 day.

It was very hard to pick the top 10 PC game news stories for May; there were lots of others that could have made this list. However it was actually very easy to pick the story that made it to number one this month. Indeed the story we have picked could be the biggest PC game story of the year so far.

Click on the image to continue reading The Top 10 PC Game News Stories For May 2009

While there were a few rumors that hinted this might happen, today developer 38 Studios made it officially, saying they have acquired the Maryland-based dev studio Big Huge Games. The studio, best known for their Rise of Nations RTS series, was acquired by THQ in early 2008 but was one of the dev teams that THQ decided to cut or sell off in its quest to stay financially solvent earlier this year.

Although (as usual) specific financial numbers were not disclosed, 38 Studios has acquired "all of the company's proprietary IP, tools, technology, assets, and works-in-progress" from THQ. That apparently includes their upcoming RPG that had some screenshots and a trailer leaked on the Internet some weeks ago. The Big Huge Games teams will remain in their Maryland studio while 38 Studios stays in Boston to work on their upcoming mysterious MMO game.

It's been known for a little while now that THQ is looking to either sell off or shut down Rise of Nations developer Big Huge Games. Now Kotaku has apparently scored some early screenshots and a trailer for one of the developer's projects; an epic fantasy RPG titled Ascendant.

The screenshots just show the game's levels and enviroments but the trailer does show combat and gameplay from Acendant The trailer footage, even in this early stage of development, clearly shows that the game has a very colorful art style and action-packed gameplay. Kotaku reports through unnamed sources that several studios are interested in buying Big Huge Games. However it remains to be seen if Ascendant will continue to be made after any such purchase.

THQ's era of cost-cutting to deal with a reduction in revenue is now 'substantially completed' according to a new company press release. The game publisher stated that it has reduced its new 2010 fiscal year budget (which officially began on Wednesday) by $220 million. It's CEO Brian Farrell says THQ's goal is to get back to being profitable in the new fiscal year.

THQ's problems over the past 12 months are well known as a number of their game titles failed to meet sales expectations. THQ began a rather brutal process of cutting expenses which included shutting down or selling off a number of internal game developers and cutting 600 jobs across the board or nearly a quarter of their entire work force. Still up in the air is the fate of THQ studio Big Huge Games which the publisher plans to either shut down or sell off by mid-May

THQ announced last month that they were looking to either close or sell off developer Big Huge Games inside of 60 days. Now rumors have hit (via the Develop web site) that the Maryland-based developer is already having to let go of some workers ahead of THQ's deadline.

The story, which uses unnamed sources, does not specify how many of Big Huge's team are currently looking for work saying only that the numbers were "huge". The developer's official web site currently lists over 120 team members. THQ only bought the Rise of Nations developer a little over a year ago. The team has been working on a still hush-hush open world RPG game with a number of former Bethesda Softworks team members.

Publisher THQ has been trying to cut costs and workers for several months now and this week word has come out that it is looking to sell off one of its newest developers Big Huge Games. This news comes from the Crispy Gamer web site who got the info from THQ after reporting on possible layoffs at the studio.

Formed in 2000 by former members of Firaxis, the Maryland-based developer released its first game, the RTS title Rise of Nations, for publisher Microsoft. in 2003. In 2006 the semi-sequel Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends was released. Big Huge Games announced plans for a still unrevealed RPG in 2007 which THQ would publish. THQ decided to acquire Big Huge Games in January 2008. So far it has yet to release one game for its new owners.

In addition to THQ's issues with Big Huge Games, it has also spun off two of its internal development studios (Heavy Iron in Los Angeles, CA, and Incinerator in Carlsbad, CA) into independent companies.