THQ cuts staff at Kaos, Volition

THQ has confirmed that it laid off over 30 employees this week, across Kaos Studios and Volition, Gamasutra reports. Sixteen employees were cut from Volition, and 17 from Kaos.

"We had to let go of 16 employees at Volition, our studio in Champaign, Illinois," the company said in a statement. "We must adjust our workforce to fit the studio's current needs, which is a relatively common occurrence in the game development industry." The company said "steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern." Volition still has about 220 employees.

The cuts at Kaos, by comparison, leave the team with 70 employees. "We have made changes to ensure that the team size aligns to the current stages of internatl product development," THQ said. The publisher is also offering outplacement assistance for the laid off employees.

Volition is preparing to ship Red Faction: Armageddon in May, and has announced Saints Row: The Third for this fall. Kaos just shipped Homefront, which sold an estimated one million units in its first 10 days on the market.

THQ assures that the remaining team at Kaos will continue support Homefront. "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've seen recent rumors that Kaos may be moving its New York offices entirely to the new Montreal-based studio. The rumors claim that those who can't go to Montreal may be let go as well. General manager David Votypka didn't rule out the possibility of moving, so the 17 cuts reported above may be followed by more.