THQ has been in a extended public struggle to keep the company out of bankruptcy after over-investing in PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of its uDraw tablet peripheral. Yesterday, the company announced Jason Rubin would take over as president, while Danny Bilson, the Executive Vice-President of Core Games, would step down to “pursue other interests.”
Rubin has been out of the news spotlight for some time but he was once a prolific figure in game culture. He co-founded Naughty Dog, the studio behind the Uncharted series, at the age of 15, and helped steer it from bedroom experiment to major second party status with Sony. Rubin also delivered one of the more memorable DICE speeches in 2004, excoriating game developers for being too meek in their dealing with publishers.
Can the company survive with a game developer running operations? Bilson was himself a former television screenwriter who tried to navigate the company away from its kids’ game identity, supporting big projects like the John Milius-drafted Homefront, and the dildo-smacking mob game Saints Row the Third. Will Rubin’s sensibilities as a pure game developer help lead the company in a different direction?
[via LA Times]