THQ bled cash to the tune of $115.3 million, way up from Q2 2007's loss of $7 million. Potentially worse for gamers was the delay of Red Faction: Guerrilla and Darksiders: Wrath of War well into 2009.

The publisher also confirmed it would lay off 250 employees as part of a "strategic plan and business realignment."

THQ further explained that its plan involves "the cancellation of several titles that were in development but had not been publicly announced."

Both Red Faction: Guerilla for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC as well as Darksiders: Wrath of War for Xbox 360, and PS3 will now ship after March 31, 2009 a move that will hurt the company's fiscal 2009 to the tune of approximately $125 million.

For the quarter, THQ reported that the lion's share of its revenue came from the Nintendo DS and Wii, similar to Activision Blizzard's console earnings announced earlier today. THQ released de Blob and WALL-E (internationally) on those platforms, with the latter seeing lower than expected sales.

THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell said that most of its struggles were due to a crowded and competitive market for kids' games, as well as key franchises — Juiced, Stuntman and Conan that ultimately "were simply not competitive."

"Insufficient game quality led to inadequate sellthrough, resulting in markdowns at retail," Farrell said.

Farrell said the company spent heavily to promote Juiced and Stuntman, and had to take a loss when those titles fail to perform. What growth THQ did see, Farrell credited to Frontlines: Fuel of War, MX vs. ATV Untamed and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008, all of which exceeded expectations.

Farrell also said the kids' market, in which THQ has several franchises, was the most competitive in years, and that the company's currently struggling to compete with music games and Nintendo first-party titles.

Nonetheless, THQ appears to have placed its faith in the Wii, concentrating much of its upcoming original IP there. Although Saints Row 2 and Red Faction Guerrilla are still the "anchors" of its lineup, Darksiders, De Blob, Deadly Creatures, Big Beach Sports and All Star Cheer look likely to be slated for Wii along with other unannounced projects, though the company did not announce specific platforms.

New installments in existing franchises for fiscal 2009 include WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, Disney/Pixar's Wall-E film tie-in, and its previously-revealed Nickelodeon portfolio. The company will publish a game based on DreamWorks' Animation's unannounced 2010 fall film, and has slated WWE: Legends of Wrestlemania for 2009.

Notably, the company seems to have an eye on the free-to-play, microtransactions-driven online gaming market in Asia, highlighting the co-publishing agreement it's signed with Shanda Interactive to bring Company of Heroes Online to China in 2009.

THQ is more confident about the year to come, with three new initiatives in place: "We are rolling out a stronger slate of products. We have put in place and are executing against initiatives to improve our product quality and competitiveness. We are also realigning our cost structure to generate significant operating leverage in fiscal 2009. We believe these initiatives will restore profitable growth and improve value for shareholders," said Farrell.

"We faced a number of challenges, but I believe we have the right strategy to overcome these challenges and achieve significant growth."

We were treated to a short demo by one of the developers, showing off a a very open world, allowing players to rampage through the city areas, destroying at will and using pretty much anything as a weapon.

Sprinkled throughout the open areas are dungeons that can be explored and pillaged for power ups and new abilities. Puzzle solving plays a hand in the dungeon explorations, as well as the ubiquitous epic boss battles. Joining you in your quest is your horse, Ruin, who has his own set of abilities that can be upgraded throughout the game. The art style was just beautiful and was done by graphic novel artist Joe Madureira's (X-Men, Battle Chasers, The Ultimates).

It was kind of hard to get a real handle on the game since it wasn't really a hands on type of experience, but from what I could see, the gameplay elements (to me anyway) seemed like a combination of Crackdown and God of War. Not a terrible combination to be sure, but I will be looking forward to the time when I can actually try it out myself.

With a release of early 2009, I'm sure we'll be seeing and hearing more about this title at the various events in the months to come.