Layoffs have hit Eat Sleep Play shortly before Twisted Metal gets released in North America. Eight employees were let go last week, and Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe also confirmed he will be leaving the company in a few months on his own free will.

We won’t have to wait until THQ’s conference call tomorrow to learn about all the grim news. The company released its latest SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) filing and it doesn’t look good. Instead of letting go an estimated 140 employees as suggested by earlier rumors, THQ will actually be sending 240 “selling, general and more »

THQ recently announced it would be shifting its attention away from the Red Faction and MX vs. ATV franchises. Those aren’t the only major changes going on in the company. THQ is also moving away from games based on movies and licensed kid’s titles. These changes also resulted in two THQ studios closing in Australia and the dismissal of a development team in Phoenix, Arizona.

The show is over for the Disney Interactive Studios-owned Black Rock Studio. DIS confirmed that Black Rock Studio will be closing down. Black Rock Studio went though a round of layoffs in May that affected around 100 jobs. Only 40 jobs were spared at that time.

Kaos Studios and THQ Digital Warrington won’t be around for much longer. THQ will close both studios soon as it realigns its business. Kaos Studios is the studio behind THQ’s Homefront, a game that was met with less than stellar reviews. THQ Digital Warrington recently developed Red Faction: Battlegrounds which also suffered from negative reviews.

Rock Studios, the developer of Split Second, is going through layoffs. Around 40 will be let go as the studio gets down to a single development team, according to Eurogamer. That site’s unnamed source said about half of the studio’s employees haven’t had a project to work on since December 2010. Split Second debuted in May 2010 to favorable reviews but tepid sales.

More bad news for Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG) today as the company has let go an additional 2% of its workforce. In January of this year, Disney Interactive laid off hundreds of employees. Disney Interactive also closed Propaganda Games following the release of Tron: Legacy. With today’s announcement, around more 80 employees are without jobs.

United Front Games has been reportedly hit with layoffs today. The developer was responsible for True Crime: Hong Kong, a game that was recently canceled by Activision. Activision’s reasoning behind stopping production on the game was due to the fact that it “just wasn’t going to be good enough.” United Front Games responded to the cancellation in the classiest manner. The developer didn’t have any harsh words, or expressed any bad blood between it and its former publisher. In fact, United Front Games hopes it can work with Activision in the future.

Earlier today, a report from Kotaku Australia revealed that Bungie is working on a game that is part first-person shooter and part MMO. This game was referred to as Destiny and continues the the sci-fi tradition Bungie is known for. This information was provided by someone who claimed to be a recently dismissed contractor.

A report from Develop claims that around 50 employees have been laid off from Vicarious Visions. Vicarious Visions has been an Activision owned developer since 2005. This news comes less than a day after Activision announced it was closing its Guitar Hero business unit and laying off 7% of its global workforce. The total number of employees that have been dismissed from Vicarious Visions accounts for at least 25% of staff.