Throughout most of its history the company has been associated with its best-known founder, Brian Reynolds, whose prior career already included work as lead designer of Civilization II and Alpha Centauri, and co-founder of Firaxis Games.

The studio's ownership has changed hands several times over the years, and it became briefly defunct in May 2012,[2] but it was revived by Reynolds[3][4] along with several original alumni and new partners.

The company was incorporated in December 1999 and was first announced in February 2000 by Brian Reynolds along with partners Tim Train, David Inscore, and Jason Coleman.

Among the founders, Reynolds principally specialized in game design, Train in production, Inscore in art direction, and Coleman in engineering.

The second, Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties was an expansion pack for Microsoft's famous real-time strategy game.

[10] On March 18, 2009, during the height of that year's Great Recession, THQ announced that due to declining economic conditions, it would close Big Huge Games unless an outside buyer could be found in the next 60 days.

[16] In October 2013, it was revealed that Reynolds and Train had revived Big Huge Games, having reacquired the trademark at auction from the state of Rhode Island, which owned it following the bankruptcy of 38 Studios.

More hires soon followed including many more alumni, and the new studio developed a mobile strategy game for tablets and smartphones called DomiNations, for release on iOS and Android.

The engine features support for a variety of applications and technologies, including physics, artificial intelligence, animation, and others.