THQ has posted its third quarter financial results, and as a result of the company’s poor performance, they plan to lay off 600 employees, as well as execute plans to lower their running costs and focus on fewer, and better, core game titles. THQ’s third quarter losses were posted at $191.8 million, with revenues at $357.3 million, a drop of 30 percent from the same period last year.

Despite the poor results, THQ reaffirmed it’s belief that they provided a meaningful and improved product portfolio during the quarter, as Saints Row 2 shipped 2.6 million units, WWE SmackDown VS Raw 2009 shipped 4 million units and De Blob shipped 700 000 units, all of which achieved a Metacritic rating of 80 percent or higher, while Big Beach Sports shipped 1.2 million units. THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell said:

“We delivered high quality games to market this holiday season but fell short of our revenue and profit targets in this challenging environment.”

THQ is now focussing on reducing spending and cost-cutting initiatives, after successfully executing their previously announced plan to reduce their cost structure by $120 million, planning to reduce costs by an additional $100 million. 600 THQ employees will also be made redundant. Farrell continued:

“Our focus for next fiscal year is to return to profitability and to generate cash. Our fiscal 2010 plan will reflect the benefits of our focused product strategy and strong actions on costs.

“Unquestionably this is a challenging time for THQ. The video game sector as a whole grew in 2008, and clearly, we did not participate fully in that growth. In this environment, we are focused on what we can control: delivering high quality products, investing in a targeted product pipeline, and aggressively managing costs.”

THQ looks forward to the release of their future games, such as Warhammer: Dawn of War II, WWE Legends of WrestleMania, their Ultimate Fighting Championship franchise game, as well as Red Faction: Guerilla, although THQ expects their fourth quarter results to be significantly worse than previously expected.