Don't curse him too much. Just heard he was bankrupt too. To the point where he just auctioned off his (possibly fake) bloody sock from the WS.
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/...ock-casualty-his-video-game-company-collapse/
Of course he's broke - he swindled the local governments so much they're going after him directly.
The way he approached it all, and how much money he sunk simply to try and have his name attached to a big hit (he ruined BigHugeGames in the process), he completely blew his chances of ever having a successful studio unless he somehow can swindle some VCs.
The whole thing: take this product -- which is almost done -- change it up a heck of a lot (increasing cost massively) attach other major names to the development of different parts, sell it as the start of a major franchise, and plan it all to culminate in an MMO that apparently wouldn't really stand out from the noise anyhow.
I don't know who owned the Rise of Nations brand, but it was BigHugeGames who developed it. Either we'll have, at best, a chance of seeing a spiritual successor, or Microsoft will recruit them or some other developer (BHG-guys or nobody!) to make a sequel. I imagine BHG owns the property/trademark, as they were planning on releasing a title under THQ, so they weren't obligated under Microsoft (though it is possible they were).
Those guys are getting passed around like crazy. It's a shame. They start developing an RPG, plan on having THQ publish it. THQ buys them. THQ gets cold feet, can't do anything with them, shutters the business unless a buyer is found. 38 Studios comes into the picture, buys them, sets them to work on that RPG with massive changes (it took an additional three years, when they were planning on releasing it in 2009, the year they got dumped/bought). 38 Studios fails miserably as a company (the product did get released, and I here it wasn't half bad ), Epic buys them up, forms Epic Baltimore, turns it into Impossible Games, and just recently canned them as well.
Epic's plan for them? A mobile game (Infinity Blade: Dungeons). What a waste of talent.
That was only about 30 days ago, they have 60 more days for their severance packages. They have the option to keep the name Impossible Games (I kind of like it, especially when they use the "Impossibear logo" ).
It looks like the head honcho (Reynolds) had left BHG about a month after 38 Studios bought them (speaks well for what was to come, eh? He saw the writing quite clearly). He formed a new studio for Zynga (ugh, an even worse waste of talent!).
But what have we hear? Remember, early February 2013, Epic announced the closure of Impossible Games.
In February 2013, Reynolds left Zynga.
Reunion?
Redemption?
Rise of Nations 2?
If they know what's good for them (and if they have the property rights), they NEED to make RoN2. Why? Handled properly, it should give them the needed cash flow to recover... from there, they can resume doing whatever the hell they feel like developing. But at this point, they need to return to the familiar as opposed to taking further risks.