Aside from, perhaps, Christmas and Gay Pride Parades, I cannot think of a single event in human history full of more excitement, joy, and revelry than E3. And so, while all of gamedom’s eye is fixed upon LA like a giant, sparkly Eye of Sauron, THQ has quietly announced the closure of their San Diego Studio.
The closure doesn’t come as a surprise for some, the studio’s stock dropped considerably after the lack-luster reception of their Homefront franchise launch. For a time, there were even (false) accusations that the company was liquidating and had cancelled their publication schedule. That turned out to not be true, thankfully, and the once mighty developer is still planning the release of Darksiders II, Metro: Last Light, and Devil’s Third, among others. However, EA has taken hold of THQ’s UFC license (could we get anymore letters crammed into that sentence?), and the arm of the company responsible for its development is down.
This restructuring was, vaguely, announced last year when Game Informer reported that the company planned to let go 240 employees by this summer, and that CEO Brian Farrell was voluntarily taking a 50-percent pay cut in order to help the company’s stability.
The company confirmed with Kotaku today that the branch had indeed closed. They plan to take action to help employees from that branch find new work either in-house, or possibly with EA. It has been said that THQ’s presence at this year’s E3 Convention will be limited, but to what degree won’t be known until tomorrow’s show. Either way, gloom threatens to hang over the company’s presentation this week, but some strong showings from their anticipated franchises may just show hope for its deliverance.
