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THQ has this evening clarified rumour of the company’s imminent closure, confirming that it is not shutting up shop.
Earlier today website N-Europe ran a story headlined: “THQ to announce closure”.
According to N-Europe’s “insider source”, THQ’s staff had been informed of the company’s imminent closure this morning.
This rumour has now been debunked by THQ. A representative contacted VideoGamer.com to issue the following statement: “Today, we advised our staff of a restructuring of our wireless subsidiary in Europe. That’s all that has happened. The remainder of the Woking based THQ operation were unaffected by this restructure in the wireless subsidiary.”
So there you have it. 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, Dawn of War 2 and Legends of WrestleMania are all safe.
Earlier this week analysts Cowen and Company announced they expected THQ to report a loss for the second half of its financial year, with a decline in sales of key franchises to blame.
“The WWE decline is particularly concerning since that franchise had been one of THQ’s last bastions of strength,” said Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz.
Cowen and Company also point towards a year-on-year 19 per cent drop in SpongeBob SquarePants game sales, and a decline in popularity of the Saints Row franchise. The first Saints Row game released only on Xbox 360 and sold approximately 750,000 units during its first 12 months on sale in the US. Cowen had expected the sequel to sell in excess of one million units, but has now lowered its estimate to only 900,000 units during its first 12 months.
In November THQ closed five of its studios and laid off staff at both Rainbow Studios and Juice Games.
The studios to get the chop included Paradigm Entertainment (Stuntman Ignition), Mass Media (Full Spectrum Warrior), Helixe (de Blob on DS), Locomotive Games (Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed), and Sandblast Games (Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon).
