see deal Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning - PlayStation 3 $19.99 on Best Buy

You want an awesome way to start the week of E3 off right? Fine: Epic Games has decided to open a new studio in Baltimore, Maryland which will eventually employ a slew of ex-employees from Big Huge Games. Big Huge Games, of course, is the developer behind Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning originating in the state of Rhode Island.

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As Epic Games’ President Dr. Michael Capps explained , all of this began this past Wednesday, when “the ex-BHG leadership team contacted” Epic Games. “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,” Capps said in a post on Epic’s website. “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.”Capps continued: “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.”Naturally, creating such a studio will take time, and Epic wants to get people down to Epic HQ in Cary, North Carolina to begin working in the meantime. The details are still no doubt being ironed out, and specifics are likely a ways off. But it’s still awesome to see that some of the talented folks at Big Huge Games will join with the respected and established developer Epic Games to keep cranking out the goods.Before releasing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning in 2012, Big Huge Games was responsible for the Rise of Nations franchise on PC. They also created Catan on Xbox Live Arcade and the expansion pack for Age of Empires III called The Asian Dynasties.Epic Games has created a number of titles since its founding in 1991, though it is best-known for its work on the mega-popular Gears of War franchise. It’s also responsible for the workhorse Unreal Engine used throughout the industry.

Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.