It just hasn’t been THQ’s week. First there’s the report that because of the poor sales of their equally poor uDraw tablet, THQ would be shuttering their kids division, thus nixing development on E-rated titles (and pretty much developing on the Wii). This after such a huge marketing push of the uDraw, and noticing that their more mature titles were selling higher than the stuff they were pumping out for kids. Soon after that, they closed out the day at 70 cents a share on the stock market. Ouch. Nasdaq then threatened to de-list them from the stock exchange. And now comes news that THQ will be handing pink slips to over 170 employees. So far no one knows if those 170 people are from the Kids Division of THQ or the part of the company that makes Saints Row and Metro.
While we hope this won’t be the case, an entire closure of THQ feels imminent. If not, then expect a major reshuffling of the company (if an ex-employee of THQ spilling the beans is anything to go by) and more safer-to-sell games coming out of THQ.
The Wired Fish Network 