THQ is set to announce that they have laid off an additional 170 employees. The news comes shortly after announcements of increased layoffs and possible studio closures by the company, which has had a bumpy ride over the last few weeks. Independent industry executive Kevin Dent was first to break the story with the following tweet: "This is probably going to break in the morning, I have sat on it for a weeks or so. The culling at THQ was 170+ souls including Mark DeLoura." Dent later tweeted "A smart journalist would send THQ's VP of Tech Mark DeLoura an email and see what the auto reply says." This elicited a response of "Hey, that's cheating. [smiley face]" from DeLaura. Recently the company has suffered big losses and has been plagued by low sales. Most of these low sales have stemmed from their casual titles and UDraw peripheral. The company has also recently received a delisting notice from the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Layoffs are sure to put anyone in a bad mood, but it's especially heart breaking for gamers when people in the industry are let go. Two weeks ago we went through the rather depressing announcement that THQ had handed pink slips to 75 employees at their California offices and last week we saw their Australian offices let go of 14 more employees. It now appears that the situation at THQ has become even worse as the company is set to announce the departure of 170 more staff members.

RchrdJ via gamergaia.com »