THQ Acquires Big Huge Games

[Xerxes]

Another one bites the dust...

THQ has announced it will acquire Big Huge Games (Rise of Nations, Catan) for an undisclosed sum, making the Maryland-based studio a wholly-owned subsidiary.

In May of 2007, THQ and Big Huge Games announced a development agreement for an RPG led by Oblivion developer Ken Rolston, currently anticipated for a 2009 debut on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

So why bring Big Huge in-house? When Gamasutra spoke to THQ executive vice president of worldwide studios Jack Sorensen, he stated that getting to know the Big Huge team played a role in motivating the acquisition, as opposed to continuing a purely developer-publisher relationship.

Said Sorensen, "From THQ's perspective, I view this acquisition as a poster child for the way we like to approach things, which is that clearly we have a strategy of being in big genres on big, original IP, but we also have a very carefully constructed philosophy in how we look at internal developments, so working with a developer for an amount of time so we can get to know each other is a big prerequisite on internal versus external, so Big Huge Games hits all our strategy points."

You might hate it but, Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com)has "more after the jump (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16947)."

Can't break tradition by not including italicized words.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

Well that's too bad.

[Xerxes]

Ummm mods could you fix the title. It's Big Huge Games. A peon corrected me.

For some reason I can't stop laughing.

[fitbabits]

Ummm mods could you fix the title. It's Big Huge Games. A peon corrected me.

For some reason I can't stop laughing.

Corrected, and only 90 minutes or so after the request. :)

[mister_slim]

They could do worse than THQ.

[The Iron Weasel]

Much worse, it seems THQ has been nice to Relic.

[Xerxes]

I'm going to say Microsoft did it again, and coincidence would make the first initial a B. Then I will add thanks fits, cause they were probably Big Head games for far too long. Also, after looking at THQs wiki page, I will say Big Huge Games sit pretty high up on the the totem pole. I don't want to say it's a quality thing, but in terms of people who can bring something that might end up as a cover story somewhere, that's them.

[KingGorilla]

Maybe the Rise of Legends multiplayer can finally get fixed.

[captainstrombosis]

Maybe the Rise of Legends multiplayer can finally get fixed.

Why not just wish for a date with a trio of sexy sisters? That's more likely.

[51|RandoM]

Corrected, and only 90 minutes or so after the request. :)

Where have you been?

Oh, and I don't mean for the last 90 minutes. :)

[KNOTE]

Congrats to all the guys there. I hope they got paid.

[Xerxes]

Maybe the Rise of Legends multiplayer can finally get fixed.

I think the only Big Huge Games game I ever played was Catan.

[KingGorilla]

Why not just wish for a date with a trio of sexy sisters? That's more likely.

If I can have that instead, then sure.

[LionEyez]

I think the only Big Huge Games game I ever played was Catan.

Yeah me too...
And it was actually ok for a couple of days.

[Stormwatcher]

RoN was awesome, and Relic is doing pretty well with THQ... They're now THE RTS publisher. All that's left is C&C and Blizz games.

[Xerxes]

Yeah me too...
And it was actually ok for a couple of days.

I still play it. I was hoping for a Xerxes AI. :cool:

[Xerxes]

Soooo... Bungie, Bizarre Creations, Bioware, and not Big Head Games.

People MS has relationships with but then let's them just go on to all the other publishers.
It's a old article but whatever (http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/10/15/bizarre-bungie-bioware-flee-microsoft-what-does-it-all-mean.aspx).

[KingGorilla]

Good, looking at what Microsoft let happen to ShadowRun and MechWarrior.