Bilson: Laying off developers is the worst part of my job

THQ's executive vice president of core games Danny Bilson has talked about the cuts he had to make at Vigil Games and Relic Entertainment.

"Laying off developers is the worst part of my job by a lot," he told Ripten.

"It is the most painful, horrible, sad thing that comes along, and I don't know how, honestly… you never get over it. Let's just say that it's unbelievably disappointing."

The THQ head also discussed developer reactions to the news of the redundancies, and maintained that the Homefront publisher had done everything it could to avoid the cuts.

"There's another story of the THQ that kept those guys and ladies employed as long as the absolutely could and did not ever want to make a change, but the market conditions, around MMOs in particular, were starting to influence a rescaling of it," he revealed.

"Our own market conditions-the conditions of the company-with our financial status, at a certain point, at the very last point, we had to let those people go. There was nothing capricious about it. It was nothing that any of us wanted to do."

He was also unsurprisingly keen to talk about THQ's future, promising great things in the next three years, with unannounced titles currently in the works.

"The thing that keeps me going and gets me up everyday is the portfolio," he teased.

"In the future, and you know this, only the best games with really quality marketing and proper investment are going to be profitable or, even, break out. There's a lot of tough stuff navigating the waters of the industry and the changes in the industry, and transitioning this company to an original IP, core games company."

The interview follows rumours at the start of the year that THQ was looking for a buyer.