Well we all know the uDraw game tablet for the Nintendo Wii was a massive success with THQ claiming they sold 1.7 million units during the fiscal year of 2011. It was such a run away hit that THQ assumed it would be a smashing success on PS3/360, however the launch was mediocre. In fact it did so bad that THQ slashed its 3rd Quarter financial earnings by 25%. THQ is apparently turning to its two heavy hitters WWE '12 and Saint's Row: The Third to perform as expected or perhaps better then expected helping THQ recover a little.

In response to the failure of uDraw on 360,PS3 THQ has laid off 30 staff members from Play THQ Development in Agoura Hills.  A THQ spokesman told GameInformer the following.

"Due to weaker than expected sales of the uDraw Game Tablet, we are taking a difficult but important step to reduce the number of employees that supported this brand. 30 people will be leaving the company and business unit leader Martin Good will also be leaving to pursue new opportunities outside the company. This action will allow us to reduce costs, increase efficiency and increase the focus of our organization."

"WWE '12 and Saints Row: The Third are two of the top games this holiday season and we also have another huge hit coming up in February with the launch of UFC 3. We want to make sure that we are focused on maximizing the sales and profitability of these titles as well as the broader pipeline of titles that matter most to our future."

Wow thats a major turn in events the fact that business unit leader Martin Good is also leaving makes me think he was probably the guy who suggested launching uDraw on PS3/360. Do you think it was a huge mistake for THQ to bring uDraw to the HD consoles? With those thirty staff members now gone do you think THQ will continue with uDraw on Wii or is the uDraw dead and going to be burried? I fully expect to see a uDraw launch title for WiiU using the new tablet controller, if THQ keeps uDraw around what do you think they will do with it?

Source

I didn't even know that uDraw came out for 360/PS3. This may be related to the fact that nobody buys Kinect software.

Same here?  uDraw for PS3 lol

what a shame, so many people losing their job lately : (

I think uDraw as a whole has kind of plummeted. They made a load of games for it that no one cared for and after the first xmas it barely exists. Albeit it never properly launched in the UK here so maybe my judgement is biased, saw an advert for it last week mind.

No idea who they thought this would sell too on PS3 / 360, especially as they did the same thing with de Blob 2 lol.

More like THQ hits THQ hard. uDraw seemed geared at the Wii market from the very beginning, and it did amazingly well considering its rather scant software support. THQ was foolish to expect the same success with a late and basically unadvertised PS360 version.

This is the way companies work, THQ made a bad call, the employees are gonna have to pay for it.

I hope they all find a new job soon.

I dunno only 30 were laid off and THQ made a point of saying that the Business Director was also leaving. I mean he must have played a major role in the decision to bring uDraw to 360/PS3 so if he got fired for that decision its more like "He made a bad call and him and a few of his employees have to pay for it".

I mean if you were the one who told your company to bring your product to 360/PS3 and he told you to expect huge sales, you then tell your share holders agreeing with him. Then your company actually makes so little that 25% of your projected earnings are lost. That guy is out of a job plain and simple.

When your company is struggling like THQ is, you can't keep those guys employed easily. Its one thing for Nintendo because they aren't in any danger, but even at Nintendo Iwata and most of the other execs took steep pay cuts over their failure. I don't see how THQ could have avoided this other then not taking the guys advice in the first place. THQ should have known better then to launch uDraw on PS3/360!

For sure Joelcool7, I do agree with you, if this is a decision he put forward and they accepted, he played a part in getting these guys 'fired'.

But in the end it's THQ's responsibility to use their employees on the projects that have the most potential of making a good profit, especially, seeing how THQ is doing rather poorly as a baseline.

So, I agree with you, possible error on his part, but THQ should have known better than to release a unfitting game on consoles with userbases that were just never going to buy the game.

Either way it sucks, I know of so many cases of management or publishers just ruining their studios.

(Studios that take on Stargate games are especially notable for this :( )

I personally don't know what they were expecting from the udraw tablets on HD consoles... Like did they really expect people to buy these things??