Over the weekend it was revealed that Epic Games is attempting to save a number of key Big Huge Games staff from the brink, scooping them up to form a new Baltimore-based studio.

The news came via Epic president Mike Capps, who announced that his studio would attempt to hire as many of Big Huge’s developers as it can.

“On Wednesday, the ex-BHG leadership team contacted us,” said Capps. “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. 

“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.

“In one of life’s coincidences, Epic’s directors had spent the morning discussing how we’d love to build even more successful projects with our growing team, but that we’d need a dramatic infusion of top talent to do so. Which, we all knew, was impossible. So now we’re planning to start an impossible studio in Baltimore.”

Capps said that it will take some time to get the red tape and admin out of the way, as well as sorting some of the more practical elements like office space. In the meantime, Epic is hiring a bunch of Big Huge employees as contractors.

“Some of these folks have been going too long without a paycheck”, said Capps.

“There’s a million things to work out. How many of the team can we hire? What will it be called? What will they be working on? We don’t know all the answers yet. Please give us some time to figure it out; we hope to have more to share soon,” he added.

“Epic’s in a situation where we can do this, and it very clearly fits with our company values, so we’re going to give it a whirl.” 

Of course, no platforms for the project have been announced yet. But bear in mind that Microsoft only have their mitts on the Gears of War franchise. We may see the collab between Big Huge and Epic on PS3. Don't write it off completely.

Things went tits up at Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning devs Big Huge games recently, resulting in 100% redundancies and a whole load of recriminations.