Core team at Red Faction and Saints Row studio left alone, but dozens of QA temps and staffers receive walking papers.
Last month, THQ announced that it would be laying off a quarter of its global work force, more than 600 workers. Today the publisher shed a little more light on where those layoffs were coming from, announcing that it had laid off 86 employees from developer Volition's quality-assurance staff.
The layoffs hit Volition's Champaign, Illinois QA facility, which is not far from Volition's Champaign, Illinois headquarters. That QA location will eventually be closed, with 16 employees transferring to Volition proper. A THQ representative stressed that the core development team of 236 employees at Volition--best known for its Saints Row and Red Faction franchises--will remain untouched.
Of the 86 layoffs, 47 are temporary workers who won't have their contracts extended, with the remaining 39 cuts consisting of full-timers. THQ noted that all laid-off employees will be given 60 days' notice, and the publisher will attempt to assist them in transitioning to work elsewhere in the industry or at other locations within the company.
Currently, Volition is working on a third Saints Row game and Red Faction: Guerrilla. Previously, the developer scored hits with the Descent and Summoner franchises, as well as 2005's The Punisher for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Kind of weird to release a shlt game like SR2 and lay off your QA before a hopefully good game like RF is being released. The fact that SR2 sold alot of copies does not mean all who bought it, liked it. Good luck not tanking Red Faction, by laying off your QA people. Idiots
i agree. i don't get it either. why not lay off the crappy game producers such as half the staff that creates the WWE franchise and keep the quality ones? but i guess that's a stretch considering THQ isn't known for quality it's mostly known for having glitches in there games.
236 employees at Volition? I'm surprised at how much less populated studious make better and LESS glitchy games. And laying off quality-assurance staff?? You gotta be kidding, you never had them, admit it!
that sucks. and no the bad economy cannot be blamed on one person. stupid... anyway, it looks like gaming is definitely seeing the effects of the rough economy. and i need a job. what perfect timing :S
THizzle7XU Posted Mar 5, 2009 4:07 pm GMT "I'm sorry, but the economy is not in the hands of a single person...ever." that comment is exactly right...it's actually in the hands of greedy people that borrow money from the banks to pay off there housing mortgage but never pay it back. that's why the US government is in the craphole with people losing there jobs left and right..almost like the Great Depression the media is always talking about.
dear god. 600 workers...This sad to hear. I've never been a great fan of this company because they have made a lot of crap but that many people losing their jobs is sad. Me, my boyfriend and my mom have lost their jobs to lay-offs. Nothing good about people losing their jobs.
@ fariso - you should never, ever say that it's good when people are unemployed. EVER! On top of that, I hardly think that any of the Red Faction or Saints Row games could actually be considered 'bad' by anyone who enjoys having fun. Gamespot could do without people like you...
THizzle7XU Posted Mar 5, 2009 4:07 pm GMT "I'm sorry, but the economy is not in the hands of a single person...ever." Smart Person, tonio12 Posted Mar 5, 2009 3:57 pm GMT "THIS IS ALL BUSHES FUALT" Dumb Person
@Humorguy_basic Haha. Not really depends on the company's focus. Normally, the Sales and Marketing are the first to be trimmed.
I've worked in Q/A for years and some companies feel they can minimize the amount of people who test a game but in the end, the consumer gets screwed with buggy games. But I guess a company needs to make money, so what can you do...
Look at it in the bright side, atleast the employees lost their job at a time that red faction is almost about to be released. so it wouldnt affect the games that much since red faction is almost about to release anyways. So I'm still expecting Red Faction to be a good game even though it would have been a better game if those employees didnt lose their job
Hope you all noticed that 'Quality Assurance' people are the first to go. Even Buggier games, here we come!
That's sad...even more people losing work. Thankfully THQ is actually aiding those people in the transition of finding new employment.
It might be Champaign, but this is no cause for celebration. I hope they don't have the Saint's Row 2 porn star on retainer, what a waste of money I mean how many extra sales do they think they've had by putting her in the game?
The new Red faction tittles are coming up huh? Well, Good to hear the workers arent actually fired, and was transferred. What the hell man? Is the economy this day are phreeaaakin bad?!
Love the Red Faction games of the past, however I'm afraid they will screw things up for the 3rd in the series.
the US economy is not looking so good for the video game industry. not just THQ...but for allot of other big name companies. i truly hope things turns around for the best and obama's strategy plan works out in the long run.
LOLZ my friends aunt was the VP of THQ and she got out quick about two years ago, good for her... SRY THQ good luck, dont make so many wrestling games plz
all this talk about the "developer of the saints row, Punisher and Red Faction" games. What the hell happened to Freespace 2? There *are* diehard fans out there (like me), you know. I hope that kind of talent is still in the company somewhere.
Hopefully they do help the others make their transitions. I hope this doesn't affect the quality of the games.
There doing the same thing that dell is doing. Dell chopped off a lot of upper mangement and temp workers too and shut down a couple of factories. Nothing seems to be recession proof first the banks, then the car companies and the gaming industry. Im starting to wonder when the medical industry will be hit next or the fast food industry will be affected. Maybe I should change my major from game design to something medical now
I know Volition best for mastering the action in The Punisher game back in 2005. They really are great develoers, or whatever you would call them, so this is sad to hear. If some crap company like Eidos was going through this I wouldn't care at all, but these guys make great products so it's too bad they're losing the jobs they do so well.
I think at this point, with every day announcing more layoffs or closures, all that "gaming is recession proof" talk really seems more ridiculous then ever. Sucks that they lost their jobs, though. Especially the QA department. I liked the Saint's Row games, but to be fair I don't think anyone played those games and thought Volition should actually have fewer people on their staff checking for bugs.
Should not affect the ongoing development of Saints Row 3; since this franchise is as good as the GTA franchise.
I loved Saint's Row 1 and 2, and I can't wait for 3 to come, so I'm glad the dev team is intact. I hate it for the folks who are out of jobs though. Unfortuately, that seems to come up all too often these days.
saints row had more things 2 do than GT4, and GTA4 Had less to do! :S stil preffer gta4 tho!
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