I'd say THQ is looking like it will be a lot better off within a few years. THQ Montreal is obviously going to release a huge title in the next year or two. I mean it currently has 150-employees and is going to number 400 pretty soon. With those numbers and the high quality staff found in Montreal I can't see them producing a crappy product. The only problem I could see is that they release a AAA+ game but since its a new IP consumers don't buy it.

I agree I don't think they can afford two or more big games to bomb. They used to publish several smaller games each year and they could afford for some of them to bomb. But with THQ now focusing on big budget high quality software they can't afford many if any to bomb. I think THQ is doing the smart thing by trying to build internal high quality IP.

It might be a rough road ahead for THQ but it is the only option. Nobody will want to buy THQ and if it were to continue its current course it would die pretty fast. I think this restructuring is THQ's final chance at redemption!

This make no sense to me.  Concentrating your risk like this means that just one flop could severely damage the company.

they announced that they will not make any more WWE games.....now they are back tracking since they lost
lots of money.....very sad....

I see their point. If your licensed IP are not selling enough copies to turn the company around drastic action needs to be taken. THQ's internal IP like Saints Row are capable of selling almost triple what the licensed IP are and without royalties and issues to work around. Lately the licensed IP just aren't capable of selling enough to turn the company around.

The publisher also had so many studios. Too many studios which didn't produce high selling software, the quality of the software was in decline and if THQ had maintained all these studios they would face immediate demise. THQ couldn't have maintained these studios much longer and the games they were making were not capable of turning the publisher around or helping maintain the studios.

In the end THQ had to make cuts. They could have cut like 30% of the staff at all of their studios to shave off the amount they needed to cut. But then those studios wouldn't be able to release the games as fast and they would be spread thin trying to continue developing as many licensed titles as they used to.

Essentially THQ realized that it had to make cuts. Its better to cut the studios producing lisensed software that isn't breaking even and pour your remaining money into the franchises that either are making you money or are capable of making you money. Fact is THQ has relied so heavily on lisenses for their income that they lack any IP capable of bringing in the funds they need to turn the company around.

As such THQ is focusing on releasing their own internal IP. Hopefully creating another strong franchise or two like Saints Row. By expanding its strongest studios and putting the focus entirely on creating high selling high quality software rather then tons of lower quality software which sells less they have a better chance of turning things around.

Unlike other publishers THQ doesn't have the IP to sell off they also don't have many studios capable of producing high selling high quality IP. They could go the way of Atari and close almost all their internal studios focusing entirely on third parties to support them. Or they could give up big budget games all together in favor of trying to keep the company alive with those less successful licensed titles. Or perhaps the company could do what it is doing and focus on higher quality higher selling software.

Its a desperate move, really risky. However I would say they have little choice in the matter!

People, the question is not if those new games are really good. Even if they are, whats sells is hype.
Hype=Sales.
Many good games failed to sell, not because of a lack quality but off a lack of hype. THQ better pulls all the stops on that field...

what SDM said. Saints Row 3 looks pretty good, but look at the competition. Zelda, COD, Uncharted, AC, those are all much bigger franchises and they will eat into sales. I wanna check it out. But I have too much on my plate as is. Udraw?? People barely bought that for Wii, are they really going to buy it for their HD systems?? Yeah i doubt it. WWE games need to go back to the PS1 days, enough with this annual crap its doing them no good. Or at least alternate between that and something like All Stars, which i actually enjoyed. I think they are kinda screwed and if they are really going to rely on Wii U, I think they are really up shits creek.

And yet the small publishers like Nippon Ichi are cruising along fine......

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=136311

That's because they make niche games with a dedicted following, THQ with a load of casual tie in stuff suffered heavily from the weak ecconomy. The more casual consumers are more likely to cut back than core gamers. 

It's what you do when you're caught in a death spiral, because likely if you were making marketable games in the first place you could support more capacity

Now this is not universally true and sometimes slimming down is wise, but usually its just a sign that you're on your way out

That assumes that the people buying those types of games are the same people that are playing them and that they associate the quality of the game with the publisher rather than the license. The people that buy kids games couldn't care less about who makes the games they just know the kid likes spungebob.