THQ confirms Kaos, Volition lay-offs

By Fred Dutton Published 31 March, 2011

17 staff let go at Homefront developer.

Homefront developer Kaos Studios and Saints Row team Volition have both been hit by a round of redundancies, owner THQ has announced.

According to a statement released to Gamasutra, 17 members of staff got their marching orders at Kaos, while 16 desks were cleared at Volition.

"We have had to let go of 16 employees at Volition, our studio in Champaign, Illinois," confirmed a THQ spokesperson. "We must adjust our workforce to fit the studio's current needs, which is a relatively common occurrence in the game development industry."

"Steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern. The changes are not expected to affect any current or future titles in development with Volition."

Volition is currently working on Red Faction: Armageddon, Saints Row: The Third and inSANE.

THQ insisted that the redundancies at Kaos would not affect future DLC plans for its recently released Homefront FPS.

"Kaos has a dedicated team in place that will continue to support Homefront with an ongoing, robust DLC and content plan, as well as working on pre-production for future games.

"We have made changes to ensure that the team size aligns to the current stages of internal product development."

Before Homefront's release THQ exec Danny Bilson suggested Kaos faced an uncertain future dependent on how well the title performed at retail, with the prospect of being absorbed into the publisher's new Montreal base not ruled out.

Despite middling reviews, the game seems to have got off to a strong start, moving over a million copies in its first week on shelves.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • NunianVonFuch #1 1 year ago

    "Great job on the game guys! Your completion bonus is on this pink paper here, just take a gander when you get the chance"

  • gjgjg #2 1 year ago

    ""All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern. "

    thats twice today-depressing

  • RoaringPanda #3 1 year ago

    "BONUS? HERES YOUR BONUS FUCKWAD

    HAHAHA"
    Edited by RoaringPanda at 31/03/11 @ 23:07

  • coldfoot #4 1 year ago

    Although I thought Homefront was crap, I wonder what kind of person would it take to celebrate these news...It's never good or funny when high level technical people like software developers get canned.

  • TheTingler #5 1 year ago

    You Eurogamer should know best that this type of thing is common in the games industry, as there's always people brought on to a project in order to finish it and then are let go afterwards.

    Nevertheless, regardless of the quality of Homefront and whether it was going to happen anyway, hope these guys land on their feet.

  • NewbieZilla #6 1 year ago

    Those of ye who got Homefront, was the EG review fair or overly harsh? Haven't tried it myself. As far as THQ go, I'm looking forward to Metro 2034. Nothing else.

  • MattyD #7 1 year ago

    Sad to hear about Volition. They've really made the best of everything that's been put their way since The Punisher on PS2.

  • dirtysteve #8 1 year ago

    @gjgjg - that's some corporate wank right there, I'd like to hear from the employees what they think about it.

  • andywilkie35 #9 1 year ago

    Hope this doesn't harm Saints Row 3, that's the real concern here.

  • kinky_mong #10 1 year ago

    Seconded. Really hope this isn't going to affect Saints Row 2 or any Red Faction games. Volition have made some sterling games recently even if they are a little rough around the edges.

  • NunianVonFuch #11 1 year ago

    @coldfoot The single-player is as described. The multiplayer is quite good though now that server problems have cleared up. For me at any rate. Crysis 2 is the game to get now tho, Homefront when it drops in price!

  • CamberGreber #12 1 year ago

    NOOO!!!

    What about the future of The Punisher 2

  • Gambit1977 #13 1 year ago

    Guess they had to pay the Ubi dudes somehow...

    This kind of thing stinks.

  • RodHull #14 1 year ago

    News breaks that staff get laid off and people try to sell them nice handbags and shoes?

    "Something unexpected surprise?". I imagine their P45s were.

  • DiamondIce #15 1 year ago

    @everyone who is taking pleasure from this.

    I've not played Homefront so I cannot comment on how good/bad it is but taking pleasure from people losing their jobs: fuck off.

  • Ultrasoundwave #16 1 year ago

    THQ seem to be a right shower of cocks.

    Volition are a talented studio though, and Kaos have potential, so to see these guys losing their jobs is very sad.

  • zuul #17 1 year ago

    > THQ insisted that the redundancies at Kaos would not affect future DLC plans for its recently released Homefront FPS.

    Thx god! Bullshit overpriced DLC content is saved! \o/

  • rudedudejude #18 1 year ago

    Stop messing around with Red Faction and get a sequel to Freespace 2 in the works dammit THQ!

  • brod #19 1 year ago

    Sounds about right for a big budget game finishing development. I guess Homefront gets a report on it because the game isn't a critical darling.

  • IkariW #20 1 year ago

    "We must adjust our workforce to fit the studio's current needs, which is a relatively common occurrence in the game development industry."

    That old chestnut....
    'Relatively common' doesn't make it right, or indeed a good thing for the industry to be known for in the long run!

  • Doctor_What #21 1 year ago

    "We must adjust our workforce to fit the studio's current needs, which is a relatively common occurrence in the game development industry."

    Yes, it is common, and it's horrible. What this means is that a lot of people will usually relocate for their first job when a team is building up for the last year of a big release. That person will work their arse off for the year, usually on very low entry-level wages with no overtime (despite working through the crunch and being hit hard by any changes made to the game), then the game is released and they are instantly dropped. They are left living in a city where they know no-one, with no job, and only a year's experience on their CV, which is barely better than no experience in the eyes of most publishers. Added to this they will probably have to relocate again for their next job and hope that it doesn't happen all over again.

    Yes THQ, this is relatively common, that doesn't mean that it's not an utterly abhorrent trend of the industry and one which good planning could avoid. These people are dropped because there's no new project for them - better planning would make sure that work was there at the end of the big project. That's what other industries do.

  • Lusterpurge #22 1 year ago

    Manager: "Team meeting! Team meeting!"
    Manager: "Ok guys, Homefront did so well commercially that you are all getting bonuses!"
    Developers: "Yaaaay!"
    Manager: "April Fools! You're all fired"
    Developers: "Ohhhh"

  • Murton #23 1 year ago

    "which is a relatively common occurrence in the game development industry"

    oh, well that makes it okay then. /sarcasm

    For all of the good that the games industry has done in improving/inventing tech and generally improving our lives it's pretty much completely outdone by this cynical practice of laying off talented individuals at the end of each project rather than finding something else for them to do. I love the games industry for the content it produces and for giving me something to do in my spare time, but I absolutely hate the massive amounts of harm it wilfully inflicts on its employees.

    I hate how often I have to say this but here goes, my heartfelt sympathies to the guys affected by this, I hope all find something soon.

  • SomaticSense #24 1 year ago

    To the (admittedly few) in this comments thread applauding the loss of jobs purely because they didn't like the game, I hope you are proud. I also hope, that you lose your jobs - if you had one, that is - during your next appraisal meeting. Then you'll be able to avoid spending money on the next game which you hate and hope the devs get fired for, because you'll have none!

    The world doesn't revolve around you and your gaming likes/dislikes. These are real people, you fucking dicks.