THQ devs call for execs to be fired, "uDraw failure is the largest and most recent"

An anonymous group of former and current developers at THQ have sent an open letter to the publisher's board of directors, demanding that top executives get the chop.

The "old guard" are sticking to THQ's relic of a formula: hot license > cheap game > lean adverts > make money. These guys "haven't realized the industry has changed."

[Titanz]

Poor mismanagement has been the cause of a lot of studio closings.

THQ got lucky the UDraw tablet was a successful business venture for them, on the Wii (I saw no appeal to this device, whatsoever). Brian Farrell (THQ's current CEO) decision to launch that same peripheral on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, was a stupid one.

I hope we receive more open letter emails from disgruntled laid of workers.

[papashango]

Ubisoft is in the same boat once asscreed goes stale.

[jivah]

soooo all the tom clancy and raving rabbid games disappeared?

im pretty sure they still bring a pretty penny

[MultiConsoleGamer]

Really heavy stuff.

Ironically uDraw did fairly well on Wii. Not so much on PS3 and 360. Know your market.

[mcstorm]

I dont get why they decided to bring the udraw out for the 360 and ps3. Yes it did ok on the Wii but its fan base tends to be younger and familys. The 360 is getting this image with Kinect but why would anyone want to spend an extra £60 on udraw when they can use Kinect for everything else. Bad Move by THQ

[Heartnet]

With Kinect and PS Move bringing the casual market to both consoles there was no need not to bring it out on these consoles....

[andron]

Yeah, uDraw on PS3 and 360 wasn't a very smart move. I'm glad the developers are speaking up on these thing.

It was obvious that uDraw didn't have a big future on PS3/360, so the executives must really be out of touch...

[DarthJay]

Great read. I wish them all luck and hope they are successful in their goals with this letter. I mean, to me the most damning part of the whole thing was the section where the writer talks about stock falling from $30 a share to 70 cents. How does anyone keep their job after THAT?

Also interesting to note; I never realized Lumber Liquidators was somehow involved in the hierarchy and ownership of THQ. Explains their presence in Homefront.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

happens with most companys.
The managers just sit on their piles of
cash not doing their jobs properly and
the little people who actually contribute to
the company are the ones that get fired because
of management fuck ups.

[B_Rian89]

truest shit i ever heard

[MasterD919]

YOU KNOW....the problem was that the Udraw originally was selling for 80-90 bucks...then $69.99-79.99 and frankly that is too much for a tablet like this that really didn't do much aside from interact with a few games and pictionary.

That being said- on the Wii it was fantastic. I didn't see any PS3 and Xbox 360 games that you could even use this for aside from Pictionary.

Sad that people have to lose their jobs for bad marketing and price points.

[dcbronco]

I think it isn't used right on the Xbox and the PS3. They need to think outside the box on uses and intended audience. It just might have been released ahead of it's time on the other consoles. Packaged and marketed differently and it could have sold fine on those consoles.

[AntBoogy90]

Wow.. that was an extremely good letter.

[NoobJobz]

I actually kind of like the uDraw. It's not great by any means but it's something different. At first I wasn't interested because of the price. But then Amazon had a sale on it and I believe I got it for $20. Now after getting it I realize there are only 3 games for it and it doesn't look like there will be any future releases. That's a shame.

I bet if they would lower the price, it would sell more. I don't remember what it wa in stores but it seems like it was around $80 to begin with. Make it $20-$30.

[specialguest]

Whoever wrote that is truly championing justice for all who lost their jobs, livelihood, and stability to no fault of their own at THQ. This is the kind of internal stuff you don't often hear about, and it's sickening to know that the top execs are barely affected by the downfall of the company they're responsible for.