The third quarter for THQ is likely one quarter the company would like to forget. The news from THQ was not good; with the announcement that the company missed revenue targets and racked up a third quarter loss of almost $192 million.

The response from THQ to this news was swift and as we have come to expect in the current economic climate. THQ will undergo a staff reduction of 24 percent, which translates into the company eliminating about 600 jobs.

The reason for the poor performance in the third quarter has much to do with the lackluster sales of holiday releases of two major titles that the company had forecast would perform much better than they actually did. Saints Row 2 only has shipped 2.6 million units so far, and WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2009 shipped slightly more than 4 million copies to date.

The company has some titles with good potential in the pipeline, including Warhammer: Dawn of War II, WWE Legends of WrestleMania, Red Faction: Guerrilla, and the highly anticipated first title based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship franchise, which gamers as well the company have very high expectations for.

THQ made a statement that we found very interesting, saying that as part of the plan to get things back on track during the current economic climate the company would be “investing in games with the highest franchise potential,” which left some of us wondering about the company’s commitment to innovation and delivering the best games possible. Like most software publishers, THQ will focus on cost control and delivering high quality products moving forward.