A troubled THQ will imminently announce 170 layoffs, according to a new report.

Independent industry suit Kevin Dent claimed to have been sitting on the news "for a week or so". His Twitter conversation with THQ's vice president of technology Mark DeLoura suggests this is for real.

"This is probably going to break in the morning, I have sat on it for a week or so. The culling at THQ was 170+ souls including Mark DeLoura," broadcast Kevin Dent, directing the message at DeLoura.

"A smart journalist would send THQ's VP of Tech Mark DeLoura an email and see what the auto reply says," Dent later wrote.

"Hey, that's cheating," DeLoura replied, smiley in tow.

Things aren't looking pretty for THQ, the publisher that was yesterday threatened with a Nasdaq stock exchange delisting if share prices didn't rise above $1 in 10 days.

Kevin Dent blew the whistle on THQ earlier this month, when he claimed that the publisher's line-up of faraway 2014 titles and beyond had been canned. MMO Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online was rumoured to be on sale.

THQ was all denials, and later put out a statement recommitting to developing new games within several core IPs.

Can there really be all this smoke without fire?