While things haven't been rosy for publisher THQ since the start of this year, it seems the company has taken yet another round of cost-cutting measures as THQ president Jason Rubin has reportedly cut 20 people from the company.
This news was uncovered via an internal email circulating within the publisher, which was then forwarded to 3D Realms founder George Broussard (via VG247) who then posted it on his Twitter.
We've included the email in its entirety below.
From: Jason RubinSent: Monday, August 20, 2012 3:33 PMTo: – – ALL THQ Employees (ALL Countries)Subject: Restructuring at HQAll,Days like today are not easy for any of us. The worst part of restructuring is clearly the restructuring. But this is a necessary part of improving and rebuilding. It is never easy to see friends and colleagues leave the company. Nobody in management, including me, takes these decisions lightly, but we must all continue to remain focused on driving the business forward and look towards our future.As you know, it is my vision for THQ to enter into new markets though new distribution methodologies, and reaching those consumers in those markets will take a different approach to marketing. It is also vitally important that we improve our production methodologies and oversight so that we are shipping better titles, on budget and on time.In our quest to make these changes, I have been looking at the Marketing and Production structure at HQ along with the heads of those departments, Rich Williams and Ron Moravek. We have identified changes that need to be made and thus today we reduced the size of these departments by about 20 individuals.It is worth pointing out that none of the development teams are effected, and we do not anticipate the reduction to have any impact whatsoever on the titles in production or the future scale of our output. It is also quite likely that in the long run the company will hire new individuals with different skill sets in their stead. To put this in perspective, Volition alone anticipates growing by about 20 individuals in the next 12 months. This represents a shift of resources from oversight to production, and from centralization out to the teams. I would also like to note that these two departments were largely unaffected by the January reduction, so it makes some sense that their size and capabilities do not align with the changes made elsewhere.I am genuinely excited about both the quality of work and the innovation happening at the company right now. When I look forward to the type of games and digital experiences we will deliver over the next few years, I see a new THQ taking a new market position in a very different industry environment.Let’s all try to keep our eyes focused on that bright future.Jason
While it's nice to hear that none of the development teams over at THQ has been hit, it's never a good thing to hear about people being laid off — regardless of what field they're in.
Hopefully, these people land on their feet soon and as for THQ, let us hope that Darksiders II moves enough units so this thing won't be a regular occurence.
