If it's one word that employees don't want to hear, it's the word "layoff." Unfortunately, layoffs (some 200 of them) are part of the adjustments that
THQ is making following its
net losses in the previous fiscal year. The good news is that, job cuts notwithstanding, THQ has a plan for restoring company profitability.
According to company president and CEO
Brian Farrell, THQ is looking into other options, some of which involves the following:
- a more competitive slate of titles
- the bringing in of new talent management for product development
- a stringent greenlight process that would not let games through until they've met key competitive technological and gameplay feature benchmarks
- microtransaction-supported free-to-play-games (such as Company of Heroes Online)
- a plan to grow the company headcount by the end of the year
New THQ CFO Colin Slade explained that the company would be reducing infrastructure and realigning its resources toward more strategic franchises. Furthermore, THQ will also be instituting a new company-wide operating budget, and will be making sure that its product development and marketing dollars are focused more efficiently on its most competitive titles.
