Game developer THQ has laid off 200 staff members as it eliminated 3 internal development teams, two of which were situated in Australia.
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| THQ’s hugely Successful WWE series |
The company is shifting its direction, veering away from kids titles and movie based games, pulling the plug on its MX Vs ATV franchise.
“As we have outlined in our business strategies, we are making shifts to reduce movie-based and licensed kids’ video games in our portfolio, which underscores our strategy to move away from games that will not generate strong profits in the future,” said CEO Brian Farrell.
“With this realignment, we are narrowing our focus to high-quality owned IP with broad appeal that can be leveraged across multiple platforms, and to work with the best talent in the industry.”
The Australian job cuts has continued THQ’s four month trend, with them dropping staff at developer Volition (Saints Row) in May, and closing Kaos Studios in June.
“By right-sizing our internal development capacities for our console portfolio, our five internal studios are focused on delivering high-quality games with talented teams driving the execution of those titles to market.”
The restructuring leaves the company with five remaining studios. THQ Montreal is working on new IP, Relic Entertainment is busy with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and Darksiders II is being developed by Vigil Games.
There’s also THQ San Diego working on the popular WWE franchises, with Volition working on the third Saint’s Row project and Guillermo Del Toro’s project Insane (if the name sounds familiar it’s because Del Toro is the director of critically acclaimed Pan’s Labyrinth.)
