The publisher has reduced the staff at their Kaos and Volition studios.
THQ has confirmed that they’ve laid off more than 30 employees at their Kaos and Volition studios as they “adjust [their] workforce to fit the studio’s current needs.”
“Steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern,” said THQ in a statement. “The changes are not expected to affect any current or future titles in development with Volition.”
Volition is the studio responsible for the Saints Row and Red Faction franchises, while Kaos recently launched the new FPS Homefront. Around 220 employees remain at Volition after the 16-person reduction, and the story is similar at Kaos Studios, where 17 people were let go and 70 remain on staff.
“Kaos has a dedicated team in place that will continue to support Homefront with an ongoing, robust DLC and content plan, as well as working on pre-production for future games,” said THQ.
While it’s obviously bad news for the affected employees, it’s not quite the sky-is-falling disaster that recently struck at Sony Online Entertainment. It’s fairly common for studios to reduce the workforce after the launch of a new game, and THQ says they will offer outplacement assistance to the departing employees to help them find new positions elsewhere. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the reality of business in the games industry, and I doubt that any of THQ’s projects will be seriously affected.
Source: Gamasutra
