Big Huge Games

Big Huge Games is an American game development studio based in Timonium, Maryland, near Baltimore. Its current operating company was founded in March 2013 by Brian Reynolds and Tim Train, together with alumni of the original Big Huge Games. The studio concentrates on mobile strategy games, combining historical combat, real-time strategy systems and ongoing live operations.

The company’s flagship game, DomiNations, launched in April 2015 for iOS and Android. It takes players through human history, from the Stone Age to the Space Age, and has surpassed 50 million downloads worldwide. Its development and continued operation bring together game design, engineering, content planning, multiplayer infrastructure and economy balancing. The studio also released Arcane Showdown in 2020, a fantasy strategy pocket battler available on mobile and PC that operated through 2021.

Development approach

Big Huge Games describes its design philosophy as “Finding the Fun,” using rapid prototyping and repeated user-experience iteration to develop gameplay systems. Its capabilities span full-cycle mobile game engineering and design, matchmaking and server infrastructure, free-to-play economics, monetization, community management and customer support. These activities support both the creation of games and the continuing content roadmaps of live titles.

Company history

The present company began as SecretNewCo and adopted the Big Huge Games name in 2014 after acquiring the brand rights. It is distinct from the original studio, which operated from 2000 to 2012; that predecessor’s games form part of the brand’s history rather than the current company’s production credits.

Nexon acquired the current studio in March 2016 following the commercial success of DomiNations. In August 2024, Big Huge Games entered a global publishing and studio partnership with Long Tale Games, an affiliate of Xsolla. The studio remains active, developing and operating mobile strategy games.