Looks like things are going from bad to really bad to awful for publisher THQ, with an industry analyst reporting — not speculating, but straight-out reporting — that the company is about to sack over 170 employees.
The word comes from independent industry exec Kevin Dent, who took to Twitter to write “This is probably going to break in the morning, I have sat on it for a week or so. The culling at THQ was 170+ souls including [THQ's vice president of technology Mark DeLoura].
If this is indeed the case, it caps off a fairly awful week for the publisher, who has faced rumours of studio closures and been threatened with being booted off the Nasdaq stock exchange.
THQ to announce 170 layoffs today – report [Eurogamer]
p tear griffin
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 9:00 AMoh no this really sucks wy dont they start selling some of there brands ?
Stephen
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 9:04 AMMost of them are sporting games I wouldn’t be surprised if they wouldn’t be allowed but than again i’m not a expert on licenses.
That Teemo
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 9:09 AMThe problem is, what Brands do they have that would be worth selling?
Red Faction? No after Armageddon.
Saints Row? Possibly
Homefront? Doubt anyone would want to pick it up
Metro? Maybe a Eastern Europe publisher would grab it
Company of Heroes? Not a strong enough brand (generic ww2)
Warhammer 40,000? Not for THQ to sell off.
Michael
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 9:30 AMCompany of Heroes is a very strong brand actually, as is Dawn of War.
They can possibly sell off Relic, who developed both of those games. I’d be a sad panda to see Relic go if that’s what happens.
James Mac
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 10:49 AMDarksiders?
AngryAngus
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 9:31 AMMetro will be safe, its currently one of the best FPS series THQ has. (I love metro btw)
Homefront has been taken in by crytek since THQ disbanded KAOS studios (A foreshadow of these events)
Saints Row…eh maybe but I think number 3 will be the last one.
That Teemo has it all right on RF.
CoH, no.
Warhammer. Of course there will be more warhammer games.
James Mac
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 11:05 AMTHQ has hired Crytek to make the game… they haven’t sold the license.
Badger
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 9:51 AM“The culling at THQ was 170+ souls”
Maybe I misread this. I thought he was giving details on the recent round of layoffs that included THQ Asia/Pacific, not necessarily new previously unknown layoffs.
SLeAKeR
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 10:03 AMUFC is one of theirs. That could fetch some $$$
Badger
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 10:20 AMI don’t know that they could get anything out of UFC. Not sure if you can sell on a licence you don’t own, and as far as I know they don’t even own the code base because it was developed by Yukes. Same with WWE.
Francis
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 10:04 AM- I really hope THQ can get out of this mess! They make really great games! Darksiders II and Metro: Last Light are definite buys on my list!
Mmmmmmm
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 9:18 AMGame developers need to relise that if some casual gamer kiddy shit is popular and sells a shit load on the Wii, it does not mean the success will transfer to the Xbox/PS3 audience. I still can’t believe that they actual even bothered with U-draw on these two systems, it was suicide since day one, any gamer would of seen this except THQ… You need to ask why??