As THQ's share price continues its extraordinary plummet over the years, from $33.73 five years ago to now just 66 cents according to Kotaku AU, it has had to take some extreme cost cutting measures to stay afloat. One of those measures includes the closure of the publisher's Australian studios, Blue Tongue Entertainment and THQ Studio Australia, last year.
Mark Serrels from Kotaku AU has gone through THQ's financial statements to find out how much it cost the publisher to close down their Aussie studios. The costs include:
Severance pay: $4.4 million in severance packages and other wage-related issues.
Cancelled titles: $17.5 million related to the "cancellation of two unannounced titles in development" at THQ Studio Australia and Blue Tongue.
Avengers License: Wiped away was the $16 million cost of The Avengers licence for the Avengers game title that THQ Studio Australia were working on.
So that amounts to nearly $40 million dollars for THQ, and it begs the obvious question, would it have made better financial sense for THQ to finish off their Avengers game and recoup some of their production costs instead of axing the whole lot and writing off the expenses as they have chosen to do. From the leaked stills and footage of the game, it looked like it was coming along quite well.
For the full report, head on over to Kotaku AU.