Big Huge Games members picked up for Epic Baltimore
Epic Games will open up a new studio, Epic Baltimore, made up of members of 38 Studios' Big Huge Games. The new studio is made up of members of the team responsible for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the only product the gutted 38 Studios was able to get to market.
"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," Epic Games President Michael Capps wrote on the company's site. "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."
Capps went on to say that Epic had been coincidentally looking to create more projects, but needed an infusion of top talent to do so. The now unemployed top talent of Big Huge Games presented a good opportunity.
He concludes that some more of the BHG refugees have been picked up by "Zynga East, Zenimax Online and other southeastern studios." The talent acquisition all but kills any chance of a Reckoning 2 – unless Epic buys the IP or has the team work on a similar project.
