As THQ attempts to deal with their difficult financial position they have decided to close down five studios and reduce staff in two others. The studios THQ have chosen to close down are Helixe (loads of handheld licensed titles), Sandblast Games (Destroy All Humans! Path of Furon), Locomotive (Road Rash 64, Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed), Mass Media (worked on Full Spectrum Warriors with Pandemic Studios) and Paradigm (Pilotwings 64, Stuntman: Ignition) studios, while Juice Games (Juiced) and Rainbow Studios (MX vs ATV Unleashed) continue on with reduced staff.
Cutting down the number of studios from 14 to 9 in one fell swoop may sound harsh, but THQ still has a rather impressive bunch of developers under their wings with Relic Entertainment (Company of Heroes, Dawn of War, Homeworld), Volition (Red Faction, Saints Row), Kaos Studios (Frontlines: Fuel of War) and Big Huge Games (Rise of Nations).