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According to International Game Developers Association Mobile SIG lead Kevin Dent, THQ has been hit with another round of layoffs, and this was was significantly larger than the last few. Among those effected are said to be over 170 employees, including the VP of tech Mark DeLoura. DeLoura's LinkedIn page pegs him as being "Responsible for technology strategy, the online game and MMO operations teams, the centralized online technology group, and relationships with platform and technology manufacturers."
His role in building MMO operations is especially troubling, as it plays right into previous rumors of game cancellations at the company, with the Warhammer 40k MMO said to be among the cut. THQ denied the rumors, saying that it hadn't made any decisions involving the MMO, but this news definitely brings that into question again. Though there's been no confirmation so far about DeLoura's status, his email address shoots back an "Mark DeLoura is no longer with THQ" reply, which is fairly ominous.
With sales down and the company facing delisting, things aren't looking good for THQ. We're really hoping that Kevin Dent is a big, rude, stinking liar... but that's likely not the case.
We've reached out to THQ PR for a comment and we'll be sure to let you know what we hear back.
[Update: THQ has confirmed that over 240 employees will be cut by March, and that CEO Brian Farrell has seen a 50% cut to his salary for the year. His 2012 earnings will be $359,250, down from $718,500. We don't even feel the need to poke fun at how silly that sounds.]
