In other business news

Six months ago THQ, a rather large game publisher who has backed such titles as the Warhammer franchise, Darksiders, Company of Heroes, and the Metro series, nearly fell apart. Their listed stock at NASDAQ fell below the $1 amount.

Faced with the threat of being delisted, THQ had 180 days to try to raise their stock back above the minimum amount. Last week, the time limit expired and THQ was found in the clear. But in order to do so, they went some radical changes.

Taking a critical look at their market, THQ severed the casual arms of their business. The uDraw tablet was a complete failure and was one of the leading causes of their stock falling so low. Other properties centered around the children and teen demographic have been halted in favor of transferring that talent onto more adult/mature titles.

As a business move, THQ consolidated its shares in a 10-1 split, greatly reducing the number. The company had gone public back in 1991.

The final change was bringing Ron Morveck as a new VP. Ron Morveck, co founder of Relic Entertainment, was also the COO and VP of EA. He brings a heck of a lot of experience to the table.

All three of these actions raised the THQ stock back up to $5 mark. Which is awesome for all us in the industry. THQ has been a huge publishing powerhouse for decades; the loss of such a studio would be catastrophic in scope. The properties mentioned above are all critically acclaimed work that have tens of thousands of fans.

Unfortunately, making games is just another business, which means it can fail like any other business, regardless of how good its products are. However, that was not the case last week!