Yesterday, while the world was focused on the likes of Microsoft, Ubisoft and EA, THQ was conducting a bit of dirty business. The studio, which has seen financial trouble recently, quietly shuttered its San Diego studio, listing EA’s acquisition of the UFC license as the primary factor for the decision.

The company issued a press release, but apparently most of the employees were not notified of the closure until yesterday. There is speculation among those in the gaming press that THQ purposefully waited until the first day of E3 to announce the closure, since it would be easy to miss such as story among the clatter and clash of new announcements and terrible Usher performances.

On the other hand, THQ’s remarks indicate the closure is the result of its selling the UFC license to EA, which means it may have been unable to announce the studio shutdown until after EA had made the acquisition public. Either way, giving your employees a few hours’ notice isn’t really the classiest way to lay them off.

The devs aren’t totally boned, however—THQ is working with laid off employees to help find them new jobs within THQ or in EA’s new UFC games branch.

What do you think about the way THQ handled the firings?

[Gamasutra]

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