Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

The announcement last week that 38 Studios had acquired Big Huge Games wasn't entirely a surprise as rumors of merge talks had been going on for months. It did bring up many questions as to why that fairly new gaming company such as 38 Studios would want to take on the struggling studio of Big Huge Games. Gamasutra had a talk with 38 Studios President, Brett Close, and found out the strategy behind the move.

At 38 Studios' Maynard studio, Close says the "core focus" is its in-development MMO and that will continue to be the case. "But part of our product vision and our business vision... was extending that across a variety of products and a variety of touchpoints that customers can access the world through," he says.

On the technology side, part of that is Big Huge's proprietary Mercury Engine -- a console engine and toolset "really specific," according to close, to RPG gameplay -- "but it can also be used for other things," he says.

"It's actually cross-platform, so we acquired that -- as well as their back catalog of IP for things like Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends and the license for Catan -- and we are able to utilize that technology in a variety of ways that will support the world of Copernicus."

You can read more on what Brett Close had to say over at Gamasutra!