Features & News

THQ Closes Down (Under)

October 10, 2012, Author: Matt Parker

THQ’s financial problems have been well documented. They’ve had poor sales, they’ve had to let go of licenses and they’ve had to let their own IP’s ‘have a rest’.

As part of a shake-up to revive the company, THQ Australia has now been shut-down. Is this a move that will help save the company, or just a way to delay the inevitable?

Whilst it’s clear that THQ’s Australian outfit was hardly huge (‘only’ 18 jobs were lost as a result of the closure) or likely to be a cornerstone for THQ’s future, it’s a worrying continuation of bad news that’s been flowing out of the company for some time.

For a long while, THQ’s shares were in free-fall, allowing the company’s price-per-share to hit the dreaded ‘less than $1’ mark. This was a real issue as NASDAQ, the stock exchange that THQ are registered with, threatened to remove them from their listings as certain standards need to be kept. This was averted a few months ago as a ‘reverse-split’ took place, meaning that instead of being split into 68 million shares worth $0.50 each, they’re now made up of 7 million shares worth $5 each. Roughly.

uDraw? uSuck!

The trouble they had selling their uDraw tablets, which saw millions of the peripherals sitting in warehouses gathering dust, cost a lot of money. The UFC games they made didn’t sell nearly as well as they needed to, meaning that EA now has the UFC license. THQ have jumped out of the children’s games market, claiming their SpongeBob and movie tie-in games weren’t earning them what they needed to. The Red Faction IP has suffered of late and we won’t likely be seeing another entry in that series for some time.

I could go on, but there’s no point going over old ground. They’re in trouble.

Whilst this isn’t likely to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, there’s still a huge amount of concern surrounding THQ. Here’s to hoping that Darksiders 2 and some of the other releases THQ have got lined-up (South PArk, WWE, Company of Heros 2, etc) can help pull this company through these troubling times and that those affected by the lay-offs are back on their feet soon.

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