THQ confirmed today its plans to acquire Rise Of Nations and Catan developer, Big Huge Games.
In an interview, THQ executive vice president of worldwide studios Jack Sorensen 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."
"Rather than it being purely financially driven -- although that's a big component -- it's more about [finding] the next group of game developers that can really add a unique take on the studio system, either from a genre or platform perspective, but also fit in well so that we can continue the culture that we built", continued Sorensen. "We have 1700 or 1800 people in product development. Even if adding on another 100 people is not a huge percentage increase, I always view it as it can add a tremendous amount of knowledge and enthusiasm. But having something in-house can become a kind of cancer where a small group of people can really disrupt the culture of the rest, so it's a carefully considered strategy for us."
Big Huge Games is currently working on a next-gen RPG game codenamed "Big Huge RPG", but this is not the reason for the acquisition. "I would say that the RPG was enough, but what definitely sealed the deal for us on both sides is the next one", Sorensen explained. "It's more innovative, more unique, and we just felt like it requires both long-term thinking from both sides. But also from THQ's perspective, it showed us that this is a studio that can generate some new concepts. Anything else coming out of Big Huge is icing on the cake."
