THQ announced that 86 employees out of 102 in the developer Volition’s Quality Assurance Department were notified that they will be laid off. The announcement comes as little surprise, since the company is looking for ways to reduce cost and overhead in a difficult economy.

Volition, which is most well known for the Saints Row franchise, will have its titles tested by THQ’s centralized Quality Assurance Department. A small number of Quality Assurance employees will be retained at Volition to work with the THQ Quality Assurance teams at THQ corporate.

What is a bit of a surprise is that THQ has gone to great lengths to let it be known that these cuts are not part of the staff reductions that the company recently spoke about in their last earnings call. THQ said that employees affected by the layoff will receive outplacement assistance and also have the chance to find work at other openings within the company.

Currently, Volition is working on the sequel to Red Faction called Red Faction: Guerrilla as well as the FreeSpace and Summoner franchises. The company also is working on the development of a game-based The Punisher comic book series.

THQ continues to deny suggestions that the company could face a fate similar to Midway as losses continue to mount. The company, however, has reduced its employee count by 24 percent, which equals almost 600 members of its total workforce.