Today hasn’t been the best day, that’s for sure. If you’re a member of the THQ marketing team, Popcap, or Nintendo Power, things are looking rough for you.
First off, Nintendo Power, one of the biggest Print magazines ever published and something that has been releasing for 24 years, is no longer. Today Nintendo has decided to not renew its contract with Nintendo Power publisher Future. According to Ars Technica, the fellows that broke this story, Nintendo has been very hard to work with and Nintendo Power writers were informed of their release a week or so ago. Nintendo Power senior editor Chris Hoffman said the following: “We’ll try to make the last issues memorable.”
Shortly after that, news broke that Popcap is reportedly laying off many employees. George Broussard broke the news on Twitter saying “PopCap Dublin/Shanghai shut down/shrunk. 50ish people in Seattle laid off. Brutal.” For a while it seemed as if the Popcap layoffs were but just a rumor but it’s become clear they’re more than rumors and the company has been hit hard by EA, a company that originally showed much enthusiasm for the Popcap.
In probably the least depressing news, moments ago Jason Rubin sent out a company wide email detailing reconstructering plans for THQ’s marketing team. Rubin specifically stated this:
“It is worth pointing out that none of the development teams are effected, and we do not anticipate the reduction to have any impact whatsoever on the titles in production or the future scale of our output. It is also quite likely that in the long run the company will hire new individuals with different skill sets in their stead. To put this in perspective, Volition alone anticipates growing by about 20 individuals in the next 12 months.”
What an awful Tuesday we’ve experienced thus far, hopefully things will brighten up here soon. Until then, lets all pour one out for those who lost their jobs today. Nintendo Power forever.