Big Huge Games becomes "Epic Baltimore"

…at least for now. Sounds like a working title for the name of the studio.

Finally some good news out of the 38 Studios collapse last month. Brian Crecente has the story:

I think there were 127 employees at Big Huge, so keeping 100 of them is a nice coup for both Epic and BHG’s management. Congrats to all involved!

I don’t think it says 100 BHG employees will be hired by Epic.

It currently says “Many of the 80 employees [who found themselves out of work] will be starting new jobs soon as employees of Epic Games.” Although I swear it said “Many of the 100” when I read it the first time.

Very cool!

Let’s get them straight to work on the next Rise of Nations.

Article cites “sources,” saying their first project will be a Reckoning-like RPG.

  • Jon

That is awesome, yay! Thanks for sharing the news, tigger!

Epic Baltimore?

Oh, yes please!

(In all seriousness, good luck to everyone involved - I hope everyone lands on their feet.)

Wow, bhg is a survivor

I spend time in Baltimore regularly. There’s nothing epic about Baltimore.

More seriously, good luck to all the BHG folks who have been caught up in “the recent unpleasantness.”

What an awesome move. Makes me happy for humanity :-)

Kudos to Epic for being, well, epic.

— Alan

Didn’t we just have one of those? Where can I vote for a new RTS instead?

-Tom

My guess is that one of the reasons Epic is willing to spend mega$ at all is because the current team is experienced with “Reckoning-like RPGs.” Making a new RTS at this point would be much riskier, and not nearly as appealing for a would-be investor like Epic.

As for where to cast your vote - the answer would be Kickstarter, my friend. ;)

  • Jon

Wow, because that worked out so well last time. Ah well, maybe what Reckoning needed was a big dose of DudeBros and Space Marines.

I’m still unsure if I should be bummed about the death of RTS as a commercially viable genre. On the one hand, I never liked them. On the other, I’m now old enough that genres that were too frenetic for me to enjoy are dying as too old fashioned.

Well, the first one did sell over a million units, and I’m sure Epic believes they can do a better job marketing the next one. There are certainly risks involved, but the likelihood Epic completely loses its shirt over this is very small. Without a doubt, one of the greatest challenges facing game companies these days is finding good talent, and I can definitely see how the opportunity to basically absorb the core of an entire studio would be VERY appealing.

  • Jon

They mentioned using an Epic IP. Infinity Blade the RPG? But, uh, not the Diablo-esque one they’ve already announced?

Awesome, congrats to those guys, let us know when we can have a baltimore getogether like the west coasters are doing at Valve!

Didn’t Epic start out in the Washington-Baltimore corridor?

It did indeed reference “100 employees” when I made the initial post.

Even so, great news all around.

Gears of War RTS. Nuff said.

— Alan