More suffer under THQ’s chopping block

The game developer and publisher THQ continues to suffer from cuts.  Back in December, thirty people were laid off from the uDraw team and this time the kid’s licenses titles are under the unfortunate chopping block.

In a nutshell, THQ made an organizational shift on their priorities – putting more emphasis on their more successful titles and cutting their less successful titles.  The unfavorable result of this decision has cut an entire program meaning the loss of even more jobs in a two month period.

Franchises like Saints Row, UFC Undisputed, Darksiders, Company of Heroes, inSANE, Saints Row, and Warhammer 40,000 are all safe.  The five internal studios of THQ were not affected at all; like Relic Entertainment, Volition, and Virgil Games.

A THQ publisher told GameInformer:

THQ confirms a reduction in force to the company’s administration and publishing organization.  As recently announced, the company is exiting the kids’ licensed games category, and is focusing on its core game franchises and developing its digital initiatives.

The actual number of people who have been let go has not yet been announced.  THQ is supposed to provide more information on this topic come February 2nd.  Large numbers of layoffs is a bad sign of things to come.  Hopefully the company can figure out what needs to be done to stop this pattern from continuing.  My sympathies go out to all of those affected by this chain of events.