As it prepares to make a move to avoid a NASDAQ delisting, THQ yesterday announced some changes to its executive team. Core Games EVP Danny Bilson, who has helped to push the publisher in its current direction of focusing on wholly-owned IP is leaving the company along with Core Studios SVP Dave Davis. While Bilson’s departure could have been a bad sign for those who view THQ’s direction as promising, the newly-appointed president of THQ is someone who knows his games: Jason Rubin, the former co-founder of Naughty Dog, has assumed the role effective immediately.
THQ is not in great shape, due in large part to the failure of the high-definition versions of uDraw released last fall. Layoffs have struck the company in the past year, and back in January it was rumored that its slate of 2014 games had been canceled. This turned out to be untrue, although since then we have learned its Warhammer MMO, Dark Millennium Online, will be converted into a more traditional style of game, and that it is trying to sell off Devil’s Third, the game from Tomonobu Itagaki’s new studio Valhalla Game Studios.
