Don't miss
  • 2,232
  • 6,844
  • 6097
  • 134
Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Game Over Zone   >   THQ slashes staff numbers by a quarter

THQ slashes staff numbers by a quarter

By on February 5, 2009

THQ announced dismal third quarter results today and announced plans to reduce headcount by 24%, representing approximately 600 jobs.

The additional savings planned:

  • $70 million in development through headcount reductions and “studio dispositions”
  • $30 million in sales, marketing and corporate through headcount reductions.

These savings of $100 million are on top of $120 million announced last year when THQ cut 250 staff and closed five studios.

It makes sense to trim out the deadwood and the fat. However, losing such a large proportion of staff (over 850 people now) runs a significant risk of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It also seems ominous that the cuts seem to be falling dispropotionately in development (unless THQ plans to ramp up its third part development projects to compensate).

600 redundancies added to the Job Loss Tracker.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com