Midway Games
From Entertainment Bobber Wiki
Midway Games Inc., previously Midway Manufacturing, is an American video game publishing and development company primarily known for developing and publishing Mortal Kombat series. There are/were several development studios owned by Midway: Midway Chicago (original studio), Midway San Diego, Surreal Software (the only studio to keep its original name after acquisition, famous for The Suffering series), Midway Newcastle (famous for some games from the Rush series), Midway Austin (Area 51 series), Midway Los Angeles (despite the name, its located in Moorpark, California) and Midway Australia (was working on the original Wheelman which was later transfered to Midway Newcastle).
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History
- July 10, 2008
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Midway appointed Craig Duncan, formerly with Codemasters, as the new head of Midway Newcastle studio. [1] [2]
- December 1, 2008
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Sumner M. Redstone sold his Midway Games share for USD 100,000 and a debt of around USD 70 million to a private investor Mark Thomas, the president of MT Acquisition Holdings LLC. Redstone owned 87.2% stake in the company, directly and through his companies, National Amusements, Inc. ("NAI") and Sumco, Inc. ("Sumco"), for each of which he was the controlling stockholder. [3]
Robert J. Steele resigned as a director of Midway Games, effective immediately.
- February 12, 2009
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Midway Games and all its US subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after facing an overwhelming debt triggered by the December 1, 2008 sale. [4]
- February 19, 2009
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Ubisoft confirmed the rumored deal with Midway Games to pick up Wheelman, developed by Midway Newcastle. According to the announcement, Ubisoft will handle sales, marketing, and distribution of the title in North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Midway will continue to direct the development of the title and retains all future rights to the franchise and will sell the title in all other European territories. [5]
- May 21, 2009
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After filing a sale and bid motion in the Bankruptcy Court to conduct its sale, Midway Games received a USD 33 million offer from Warner Bros Entertainment. Warner Bros is seeking to purchase most of the Midway's assets, including Mortal Kombat franchise and Chicago and Seattle studios, but excluding TNA franchise and San Diego and Newcastle studios. [6]
- June 16, 2009
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Guardian.uk reported that Midway Newcastle and San Diego studios were to be closed unless purchased by end of June 2009. Despite the gloom possibility, Newcastle studios, the creator of Wheelman, continued working on its new open-world action game using Epic's Unreal Engine 3, Necessary Force. The game was revealed on June 17, 2009 as its official site was launched.
Studios
Midway Studios - Australia
Founded as Ratbag Studio in 1993 in Adelaide, South Australia by Greg Siegele and Richard Harrison. The company was acquired by Midway Games on August 4, 2005 to be shut down only four months later, on December 15, 2005. Midway announced the decision about closure to its subsidiary's stuff only two days in advance, on December 13, explaining that the studio wasn't able to reach suitable quality levels in its deliverables. The news were rather shocking to the Adelaide studio personnel as they found themselves suddenly unemployed. Nonetheless, several companies expressed interest in interviewing ex-Ratbag employees, among those were Sidhe Interactive, Pandemic Studios, Bullant Studios, and Team Bondi. [11] Midway Australia was working on Wheelman before its closure, the project was later transfered to Midway Newcastle. [12][13]
Midway Studios - Newcastle
Previously known as Pitbull Syndicate Ltd, the company was acquired and renamed by Midway Games in October 2005. The PSL team was specializing in racing games and developed four games in the Test Drive series, Big Air and Demolition Racer, as well as its proprietary k9 game engine. Already as the Midway's subsidiary, the Gateshead, England based company released L.A. Rush and Rush (the development for both games was completed just prior to the acquisition), and a project originally started by Midway Australia called Wheelman. On June 17, 2009 Midway Newcastle officially announced its new project, an open-world action game Necessary Force. Newcastle studio was not purchased by Warner Bros during the Midway Games acquisition, and the future of the company and its newest game is unknown at the moment.
Midway Studios - San Diego
Midway's first studio to develop video games for consoles, it is located in the same building as Midway Home Entertainment in San Diego. Several famous in the video game industry people worked under the studio's roof. For example, on October 15, 2003 John Romero and Tom Hall joined Midway San Diego. John as Project Lead and Game Designer to work on an internal game, unannounced at the time, and Tom as Creative Director of third party titles.[1] It was later revealed that John Romero was working on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. John Romero left Midway in June 2005 before the project completion. According to him, both he and the studio manager, Hugh Falk, were fired from the company to cut the expenses.[2] Tom Hall left four months prior to that and, despite some people's belief, wasn't involved in Gauntlet production in any way. Midway brought some of its employees to San Diego in order to finish Seven Sorrows, and it was released in a hurry on December 12, 2005. The studio was not included in the Warner Bros acquisition of Midway Games and will be closed by the end of June.
