Big Huge Games Spawns Epic Baltimore

[hal]

Big Huge Games employees found themselves jobless as its parent company 38 Studios suffered a financial meltdown. Once it became clear that there was going to be no miraculous comeback, a core group of the developers approached Epic Games regarding the use of one of their IPs for the starting point of a new game. Little did they know the Cary, NC powerhouse was looking to expand. Epic Games' president, Mike Capps, writes:

Our heart goes out to the people affected by the unfortunate events surrounding 38 Studios and its subsidiary in Baltimore, Big Huge Games. Through it all, the team stayed together in a way that's been really heartwarming to see. The team kept working, hoping that there'd be a way to secure last-minute funding and save the company. People brought extra food into the office to help those unable to pay their bills. And last week, in bittersweet irony, Big Huge Games was named to Game Developer's Top 30 studios in the world list.

You may be wondering why I'm writing all this - and it's because Epic is going to do something to help them, and we want people to understand why we think it's the right thing to do.

On Wednesday, the ex-BHG leadership team contacted us. They wanted to start a new company and keep together some of the key talent displaced by the layoff, and hoped that they could use an Epic IP as a starting point for a new game. We loved that they all wanted to keep working together, but it was pretty clear they'd have trouble building a demo and securing funding before their personal savings ran out.

In one of life's coincidences, Epic's directors had spent the morning discussing how we'd love to build even more successful projects with our growing team, but that we'd need a dramatic infusion of top talent to do so. Which, we all knew, was impossible.

So now we're planning to start an impossible studio in Baltimore.

It'll take a while to find space, set up desks and PCs, purchase sufficient Nerf weaponry and Dr. Pepper, etc. But some of these folks have been going too long without a paycheck to wait for that. So, as soon as we can, we're going to try to get people working down here at Epic headquarters in Cary, NC as contractors.

There's a million things to work out. How many of the team can we hire? What will it be called? What will they be working on? We don't know all the answers yet. Please give us some time to figure it out; we hope to have more to share soon.

The way we see it, there's been a big storm in Baltimore, and we're taking in a few of the refugees - as are the awesome folks at Zynga East, Zenimax Online, and other southeastern studios. Epic's in a situation where we can do this, and it very clearly fits with our company values, so we're going to give it a whirl.

An action-RPG, possibly using an Epic IP? Count me in!

[[NBK]Rattman]

Congrats to the people that will have jobs again and props to Epic for jumping in with both feet to aquire the studio and get people back to work!

[AKWolf]

Yeah, they need some some fresh stuff. Not Batman type stuff game play either .

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Good show epic. Good show.

[Luv_Studd]

That's a pretty amazing story, and quite a feat of compassion. Great to see that these days.

[Arnox]

Where were they when Free Radical went to hell?

Nah, I understand. Best of luck to them though.

[ambershee]

Originally Posted by Arnox

Where were they when Free Radical went to hell?

Second in line behind Crytek

[Arnox]

Originally Posted by ambershee

Second in line behind Crytek

Yeah, but Crytek at the time just needed someone to tell them how console gaming was done. That's why they brought them in.

[ambershee]

Given Haze, it wasn't the best choice.

[Arnox]

Originally Posted by ambershee

Given Haze, it wasn't the best choice.

The problem there is that they bit off way more than they could chew. Pretty soon, they were missing deadlines and the publisher began to ride them hard.

[Spiney]

Originally Posted by Arnox

The problem there is that they bit off way more than they could chew. Pretty soon, they were missing deadlines and the publisher began to ride them hard.

Indeed, here's the Eurogamer article detailing everything.

Originally Posted by ambershee

Given Haze, it wasn't the best choice.

Timesplitters and Second Sight were pretty awesome though.