Bad news indeed but I wonder what they will do next? Maybe they had some other game ideas on the side, maybe it's possible they might return to do an rts game again.

I came across these comments in a recent article:

Quoted from user:

It's not hard to guess how this all ends. The company goes under, the state gets their assets, EA buys the Amalur IP but not the MMO.
Do they have any other assets?

Quoted from user:

Rise of Nations? That was a Big Huge property, not sure if it came along with them when 38 bought the studio from THQ.
List of some properties transferred from Big Huge Games, Inc & THQ, Inc to 38 Studios: http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/doctitles.cgi?V3583D428

Quoted from user:

Hmm. Okay. I could see someone buying up Rise of Nations in the hopes of turning it into a facebook game or possibly holding onto it for more of a resurgence in RTS games.

Quoted from user:

I think the "Rise of..." brand is much stronger than "Kingdoms of Amalur," especially relative to competitors in the respective genres, but maybe I'm wrong.

So others have the same idea and I guess we can try to email and post comments, and wait to see what happens.

[This message has been edited by alincarpetman (edited 05-25-2012 @ 07:22 PM).]

Ya Big Huge as of right now is technically no more due to two specific reasons.

1. There is no longer any staff to develop any content.

2. (I may be wrong on this) The State of Rhode Island (My home Owns all assets of Big Huge and 38 Studios) This means their building equipment, computers, rights to the games, so the IP to Rise of Nations and Kingdom of Amular.

Im not sure if the state ONLY owns the IP or rights to Kingdoms but considering 38 was the parent company of Big Huge, it would make sense. I think it comes down to the what was agreed upon when 38 and Rhode Island made that 75 million dollar deal.

So Curt may own still own the rights to some things of both companies.

at any rate.

This means we probably will not be seeing a RON2 anytime soon.


What I predict now is the state will auction/sell the rights of the game(s) to other interested game developers (LETS PRAY FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE IS NOT! ONE OF THEM) to get some of the money back that was lent to 38 studios.

OR in some crazy messed up fantasy decision, the state creates a game division and continues development of said games therefore making it the first time in history that a Game Developer is a STATE and programming, animators, story telling become state jobs.

Just an idea.

Thanks for reading.

Hmmm... selling the rights of the game.... interesting....

Hi ViccyQ, thanks for the info and I wonder what really are the chances that another developer could acquire the game rights for some or all of BHG's games?

I don't know too much about these things but I guess it's possible another developer could obtain the rights to Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, etc and do something with them. I don't know how far along BHG was with developing the ROL expansion and RON 2, so they might have some usable material.

BHG themselves were saved by 38 Studios and they were developing their rpg Ascendant which was somehow used for Kingdoms of Amalur, so if it happened once it might happen again.

I know Gog.com acquires re-publishing rights and patches games up but are there any developers and/or publishers that will take over unfinished projects?

[This message has been edited by alincarpetman (edited 05-27-2012 @ 09:40 PM).]

Hey. Let me edit some of my info. I think what is happening now 38Studios is still its own company and holds the rights to all its properties. I think Curt is trying to restructure the company so he won't have to file for any type of bankruptcy. He has been trying to get investors to pump money into the company to get work done on Project Capernacus <-- I totally messed that up. From what I understand, he was operating at around 4mill dollars a month on expenses so he would need a very substantial investment if he was planning to release his game next year in June.

So if he can pull that off, hats off to him but if not, looks like he will have to put his own money in (which I know he does not want to) or file for bankruptcy. I think the deal agreed upon though with RI states that if the company fails, the state can claim all ownership. Those are basically the scenarios. I have sorta stopped following the story after I heard he fired all his staff at all locations.

As far as other Devs/Gaming Companies go, Yes they can and probably have offered to buy the rights at some point. Stronger development studios who are well off are in a great position to buy the rights and complete these games. I'm sure a good amount of work has been done on Project Copernicus, im hearing around 6 years of development which make those companies a killing if they could get their hands on the work.

The thing is when other companies get their hands on acuired work, they change things around and may not present Copernicus in the light it was originally intended. At any rate it would be nice to see the game on shelves. 38 Basically took a huge gamble with state money and lost so it did not end well for anyone.