THQ Inc. said Thursday that it will lay off 114 employees, all of them out of state, in order to cut costs as it converts one of its franchise video games into a potentially more profitable format.
The Agoura Hills game developer said that it is transitioning “Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium” from a massively multiplayer online game into both a single player game and online multiplayer experience.
THQ said the layoff decision was due to the additional investment necessary for the transition, and the company’s inability to find a strategic partner to finance development.
“We are genuinely excited about the new direction that THQ is taking with Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium, and we are sure that this will be a great addition to the ever-growing stable of authentic and engaging Warhammer 40,000 video games,” said Jon Gillard, head of THQ’s Licensing for Games Workshop.
The cuts come at THQ development studios in Austin, Texas, where 79 employees have been cut, and in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is losing 39 workers. The layoffs are the latest in a series for the company over the last several months. Most recently, the company announced in February that it would lay off 240 employees — about 17 percent of its workforce — as part of a previously announced restructuring plan.
The latest announcement was made a few hours before the markets closed on Thursday. Shares closed down 3 cents, or more than 4 percent, to 59 cents on Nasdaq.
