February 3, 2012 by Paul Curtin
THQ is in very serious financial trouble. The powerhouse video game publisher behind releasing massive franchises such as Red Faction, Saints Row, Warhammer, UFC, and WWE has seen its stock price drop from around 30 dollars per share back in 2009 to now around 50 cents. What’s worse is that THQ (THQI) will be removed from the NASDAQ Stock Market if they can’t get their price per share to above one dollar by July 23.
To try and save the sinking ship, THQ has just let go of 240 staff members, and CEO Brian Farrell is reducing his yearly salary from $718,500 to $359,250. THQ, who used to make a profit off children’s games based on popular licensed franchises like Cars and SpongeBob, has since lost their deals with Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, and Nickelodeon. With the children’s gaming genre moving away from expensive consoles and towards cheap mobile devices, THQ has said that they will stop making children’s games and focus on their core franchises geared towards an older audience.
THQ just announced its third quarter financial results, and surprisingly no core games have been canceled by the company. Core titles such as Darksiders 2, South Park: The Game, UFC 3, and WWE ’13 are all still set for release in 2012. Metro: Last Light and Devil’s Third are expected to be released at the end of fiscal 2013 with inSANE and Homefront 2 still planned for 2014. One of THQ’s bigger projects, Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium Online, is also still set for release in 2013, but expect an even bigger delay to 2014 or cancellation for the upcoming MMORPG after THQ’s massive staff layoffs and funding issues.
