BREAKING NEWS: Marcus Stephenson LEAVES THQ.

Yes, you read that right.

Community Manager for WWE Games THQ just quit. Or was let go. One of the two. Details are sketchy. But RealCoryLedesma's tweet seems to be worded more to suggest that Marcus left of his own volition.

I find this shocking and dismaying for a few reasons.

1. Marcus was THE MAN that basically turned the entire WWE Games division around when it came to involving the community and picking up all the fans together, and wrangling them into a voice for the WWE Games to have an impact on the final product in a way that THQ had NEVER done before.

and 2. He didn't even join the team until SVR11 was already wrapping up production, where the final, already decided touches were going into it. And he's leaving before WWE '12, his first entry in the series where his presence in getting the fans together for their input, has even been released.

Honestly, this is a HUGE blow to the future of the WWE video games franchise, as he, more than anyone else on that team, got the feedback of everyone on forums, and everything involved into the product.

He had done so much, yet was there for so little a time. He was on all the boards, working hard on addressing and writing to people, collecting their feedback.

I can only guess at what this means or how it happened. Did he get tired of the hatred and all the negativity on forums, and it finally just drained him?

Did WWE Games decide that a community manager wasnt something they needed anymore, and let him go?


Either way, this means one thing above all other things. WWE Games, more than likely, won't be able to, or put any emphasis on fan interaction any longer to the extent that they put on this game. This game, that, mind you, isn't even out yet. OR finished.

Marcus, at least for the fan interaction aspect of this franchise was an integral and VERY important part of the community in general, and this sudden departure is a little more than concerning.