The trend of small video game studios getting slurped up by bigger publishers continued Tuesday, and it doesn't show any signs of stopping. Big Huge Games Inc., a small development studio that focuses on role playing games, agreed to be acquired by THQ Inc. for undisclosed terms.

BHG, which employs 100 people and was founded in 2000, is known for developing console and PC games such as "Rise of Nations" and "Alpha Centauri." Despite the grandiosity of its name, BHG is another small studio operating in a sector dominated by intellectual-property-hungry publishers. And, like Bizarre Creations, another small game studio that was acquired by Activision Inc. last fall, there are a lot of mouths to feed between title releases.

For THQ, the acquisition adds to a growing list of small titles and publishers it has acquired. The company bought the "Juiced" game title from bankrupt publisher Acclaim Entertainment Inc. for $10.5 million in 2004, acquired the U.K.'s Juice Games Ltd. in 2006 for undisclosed terms and last year bought Finnish mobile-gaming studio Universomo Ltd., also for undisclosed terms. - Olaf de Senerpont Domis

See Jan. 15 press release from THQ
See September 2007 post from Tech Confidential
See Jan. 15 post from Gamasutra