January 30th, 2009 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Companies & M&A | 3 Comments »
Over the past years, THQ Wireless had a lot of trouble to hold their position in the market. They have seen big competitors like Eidos and Vivendi enter and leave the market. Now it seems it's THQ who is kicking the bucket.
Though it is only a rumor at this time, various sources say that today might be the last working day for a lot of THQ Wireless' employees. Nevertheless we hope there is some sort of social plan.
So what's to happen next for the company? Perhaps it will take the same route as Activision Blizzard does. We will keep digging for more information and keep you posted.
As we said before, it's still only a rumour. If anyone can provide more information, please do. As usual we will protect our sources.
UPDATE: The rumours might have been fed through an article from N-Europe, who noticed that THQ itself would be shutting down. Videogamer says it isn't true, yet it also notes that the company is expected to report more loss and that it has recently closed 5 studios (as well as lost some IP). Meanwhile, we can't get in contact with anyone over at Wireless…
FINAL UPDATE: Insiders point us to Videogaming24/7. This site holds the only true story. So THQ is not shutting down, but Wireless will be restructured. Additional to the reporting website, we can tell you that 3 offices will close down. Only a few employees will remain active in the US and EU. Universomo, the development studio will focus only at high end devices like the iPhone. 100 employees will be fired. That's it for now…
seems THQ wireless is closing down the UK office:
http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=12820
nice article
Given today’s market environment, we believe our focus on the high-end handheld market is critical to strengthening our market position and achieving profitability.
As a result, we will be downsizing our wireless group and will be closing our San Diego, UK and Germany wireless offices. Approximately 100 employees will be affected. Our Universomo studio will continue to be the center of our wireless development business. Universomo has been recognized for product quality and we look forward to continuing to develop and publish quality games for devices such as the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone.
Brian (THQ)
just check it out here:
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-thq-restructuring-hits-wireless-focus-will-switch-to-smartphones-100-em/
This will mean no new J2ME Games from THQw. Moving away from the operator business at it is today. Another one left the ring.