THQ facing class-action suit for uDraw sales claims

THQ's uDraw has been discontinued, but shareholders are pressing a class action suit for the company offering misleading statements about its sales and future.

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THQ is facing a new legal battle, this time from annoyed shareholders who claim the company mislead them about the sales success of the uDraw tablet. The class-action complaint alleges that THQ made "materially false and misleading" statements about the health of the uDraw between May 3, 2011 and February 3, 2012.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that the complaint was filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, on behalf of shareholders. It claims that THQ "recklessly disregarded" key facts, including: low demand for the uDraw on Wii, even worse performance on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the need to to take back or offer price protection on hundreds of thousands of units, and a lack of reasonable basis to offer positive statements about the company. The suit is seeking damages on behalf of all THQ common stock owners.

Following weak sales of the device, THQ laid off 30 uDraw team members in December 2011. At the time, the company was still fairly positive about uDraw, saying the staff reduction would "increase efficiency and increase the focus of our organization."

Then in February 2012, THQ discontinued the peripheral altogether. "We were looking at Udraw as a bridge to the digital future," then-president president Brian Farrell said, "but the bridge to the digital future turned out to be a plank that we walked off."

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  • reply
    June 20, 2012 12:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, THQ facing class-action suit for uDraw sales claims.

    THQ's uDraw has been discontinued, but shareholders are pressing a class action suit for the company offering misleading statements about its sales and future.

    • reply
      June 20, 2012 12:43 PM

      lol "but the bridge to the digital future turned out to be a plank that we walked off."

    • reply
      June 20, 2012 12:51 PM

      I've never even seen it available for xBox or PS3 where I live.

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        June 20, 2012 1:01 PM

        It got discounted pretty quickly once it wasn't moving and most retailers didn't get any new stock in. Apparently they had lots of units in warehouses that never saw the light of day.

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      June 20, 2012 1:03 PM

      If they actually want their money they should've held off a bit, bastards.

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        June 20, 2012 2:30 PM

        Totally agree. Suing a company that can barely keep it's head above water isn't the best idea in the world. Of course, these are the same people that thought backing the uDraw was a good idea in the first place.

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          June 20, 2012 5:50 PM

          The 360 / PS3 uDraw got announced in May 2011: http://www.shacknews.com/article/68318/thq-bringing-udraw-tablet-to

          The Wii uDraw was released in November 2010, in the swan song months of plastic peripheral games, back when Rock Band 3, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, Def Jam Rapstar, PowerGig: Rise of the SixString, and Tony Hawk: Shred were being released, to fizzling enthusiasm, and complaints of having too many plastic peripherals. Back in late December 2010, the shareholders could've done some formal or anecdotal research to the perception of another plastic peripheral game, but apparently didn't do that research.

          My "knee-jerk judge" judgment would be against the shareholders, since they had plenty of time to look at the market and see that the 1.7 million sales were pretty good on the Wii, but that a 360 / PS3 version probably wouldn't set the world on fire.

    • reply
      June 20, 2012 1:37 PM

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