14 DAY TRIAL // Rise of Nations and Catan developers, Big Huge Games, will be acquired by THQ for an undisclosed sum. This comes as a follow up of the announcement THQ and BHG made back in May 2007 about an agreement for a role playing game led by Ken Rolston, Oblivion developer. The game is supposed to make its debut in 2009 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles.
Gamasutra.com talked to Jack Sorensen, THQ executive vice president, who said: "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."
Sorensen also declared that they are considering every developer they are working with as a possible acquisition, not only from financial reasons (but that is a factor, too) but for bringing an unique take on the studio system. Back to Big Huge Games, he said that the developers will not focus only on RPGs, since they already have "another game" in the works, but except the fact that it is an original IP, no other informations were disclosed.
Big Huge Games' Tim Train declared himself happy following the acquisition which seems to be more like joining a new family than some big guys buying somebody smaller: "We're going to fold into the worldwide studio system. We're really excited. Since we started working with THQ, we've been impressed with the quality of their developer support on every level. It's rare to find a publisher who understands games on the level and depth that they do, and they share our position for quality in a great environment."