Heritage Global Partners have been retained to oversee the sale of all video game and video game related intellectual property rights owned by 38 Studios (which includes Big Huge Games).

Epic Games announces the opening of Impossible Studios, a company comprised of highly skilled, senior-level game development talent.

Social games developer Zynga appointed Brian Reynolds to the newly created position of chief designer, where he will lead the product development team and will be responsible for developing new social strategy games.

38 Studios has acquired Big Huge Games, previously an internal studio for THQ, including all of its proprietary IP, tools, technology, assets, and works-in-progress. The acquisition is a critical step in 38 Studios’ strategy to deliver a broad range of entertainment products centered on its original fantasy IP, codenamed Copernicus.

Merely a year after acquiring the Rise of Nations developer, THQ has notified the Big Huge Games staff that it is looking to sell off the studio, or closed it down, according to Crispy Gamer. As part of its restructuring efforts THQ will cut costs by $220 million, and lay off 600 employees worldwide. To achieve that goal it will not only close BHG, but also granted Heavy Iron and Incinerator their independence. Closing Big Huge Games would be the second big loss for real time strategy gamers after Microsoft recently shut down Ensemble Studios.

THQ announced plans to acquire Big Huge Games, known for Role-Playing-Game such as Rise of Nations and currently working on a yet unannounced RPG title for PS3, X360 and PC.

THQ announced that it has entered into a development agreement with Big Huge Games, known for Rise of Nations, for a brand new RPG scheduled for release on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in 2009.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston, who also worked on Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, has joined Big Huge Games to create a to-be-announced role-playing game.

Big Huge Games, developer of the Rise of Nation strategy game, has licensed SpeedTree for an upcoming game title. "We chose SpeedTree for the phenomenal CAD abilities of the program, which we've used to create believable and compelling environments for our next game," said Big Huge Games founder and Vice President Tim Train. "This software package has saved us invaluable time. Once we had tried the free evaluation version, we knew we had to upgrade to the full product." Big Huge Games has not revealed the name or any details of the new title.

Big Huge Games just put up the FAQ on their upcoming RTS "Rise Of The Nations. Items such as release date, demo, public beta and many other goodies are discussed .. Here's a snippet ...

Q: How is Rise of Nations different from Age of Empires?
A: While both are "historical RTS games", the two products are very different. In particular, Rise of Nations covers the sweep of human history, not just one specific time period. Players can guide their civilization from the stone age to the modern era, all in the span of an hour.