Midway Sale To WB Clears Court, Staff At Two Studios Given Notice
Warner Brothers’ bid to purchase much of game publisher Midway won court approval yesterday. The company updated Kotaku and clarified the status of some studios and licenses.
The sale to Warner Brothers is expected to close in the next 10 days, according to Midway spokesperson Geoffrey Mogilner. That will put the Mortal Kombat licence, the This Is Vegas project, Midway’s sports and arcade brands as well as the company’s Chicago and Seattle studios under the WB umbrella.
Among the studios and properties not part of WB’s acquisition are Midway’s Newcastle and San Diego studios. The San Diego team has been working on a new TNA game, according to Mogilner, but neither the team nor the wrestling licence is part of the WB deal. The team at San Diego, as required by law, was given 60 days’ notice on Wednesday. Wheelman studio Newcastle had already received similar notice, though Mogilner was uncertain how long ago that had been provided. Newscastle has been working on the new game Necessary Force. The spokesman said it is “entirely possible” that those studios could be acquired, but no bids are on the table.
One update about Midway’s sports lines: The Blitz brand is part of the Warner Brothers deal, but Midway’s NBA Ballers and NFL Blitz games, which were a product of expired Midway deals with pro sports leagues, are not.
Kotaku reported WB’s interest in Midway in April. The media giant’s $33 million bid succeeded after an obligatory waiting period saw no other formal suitors, according to the LA Times.
Midway is one of the original video game developers and publishers in the industry, one of the few active companies that was making games before the rise of home consoles.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
... and with that, can they please strike a deal with Nintendo to put the N64 version of Cruis'n World on the Wii Virtual Console? It's the only home port of a Cruis'n game that didn't suck.
+ Watch video
twinturbo2
@Sir_Pennyworth:
Yep. Tricky Dick Grayson already won.
But Sub-Zero would have made a better Batman than Crazy Jason Todd.
Diverse-Nerd
We're one step closer to Animaniacs vs. Mortal Kombat! Who's writing insane crossover fanfics now, huh!?
"Midway is one of the original video game developers and publishers in the industry, one of the few active companies that was making games before the rise of home consoles."
Shame experience doesn't equal quality games in this case.
Blitz Online. Make it happen, WBIE.
Soon the Game Industry will be few selective companies and when all or a couple begin to fail the whole thing becomes to big to fail and we get the situation what happened in the 80s.
Problem is we have companies like EA and now Atari which are trying to promote their draconian systems and buying up all the competition and then closing shop.
What ever happened to bringing down monopolies?
Pious_Augustus
@AlucardsQuest: Just between you and me, that is the new secret franchise WB developed. They had to develop it under a code name as they didn't have the MK licence yet. But shhh don't tell anyone. It's top secret.
develin
@globones: That they release it somewhere, where I can buy it. It is neither on the German nor Japanese PSN store, most likely for the same reason (too freaking bloody).
develin
What is this "Mortal Kobmbat" link in the read more section? What is "Kobmbat" anyway?
AlucardsQuest
@LTTelamon: And then the monopoly will lower all the prices of their products to "Cheap as Free" so as to starve the up-and-comer into submission, buy the up-and-comer, and the distopia returns.
@globones: BUT GOVEM'T CAME AND TOOK MA BABY!!!
Midway has been in dire financial straits for a LOOOOOONG time. It was only a matter of time (or possible a new super-popular franchise like Halo) before they had to do something. They were being kept afloat through heavy private investment and their stock has been in the crapper for years now.
The mergers aren't that bad for the games industry in my opinion. Even EA has figured out the best way to make great games is let studios run themselves. Remember, Microsoft let *Bungie* become independent, the makers one of the most commercially successful franchise ever made. Studios have more power than people think, even in large corporations.
Turtlebread
You can not defeat my final form!
Have at you!
@LTTelamon:
Unfortunately, business tweaks social darwinism where you can fail, or if you're lucky, get bought out. It's pretty much the same thing as failing if it wasn't a merge or hostile takeover.
You guys are missing the silver lining here:
1) original IP are being released in "This is Vegas"
2) A wealth of great IP owned by WB now has a home with a fighting game developer and an open world developer.
Yeah it may not be the best thing for the industry as a whole but better than loosing all that was Midway to the ether.
Ozzimo
@Timothy Saskiewicz:
They already have MKII. What more do you want!!??!!
@Handsome Al:
Put down the crack rock and step away from the internets.
@FillionSmythe:
When you mean "I" you mean your hand and when you say "hot babe" you mean your hot dog.
@Dope boy hero - on a sabbatical.:
Nope. Just need a history lesson in video games. I dare you to go back and play games from nes, snes, genesis and ps1 eras and tell me how many of those developers are still around. History is filled with game developers coming and going. Its amazing and sad at the same time that a company as old as Midway has survived this long.
@Gortexfogg: I doubt it. I have never seen or heard of any fighting game. Just Platformers.
capitalism!!!
where the rich get richer, and the games get crappier
@hazelnut - RIP Michael Jackson: But seriously, a Looney Tunes fighting game would rock. My luck is, WB probably did one already and it sucked ...
Gortexfogg
@Handsome Al:
So you're the one...
@Sloopydrew: Agreed, and the recent economic crisis is an indicator of how scared people are to just let inefficient companies with poor business models go out of business. Competition is supposed to be like Social Darwinism - the good ones survive, the bad ones die. If the bad ones aren't allowed to die, it's pretty much the equivalent of holding a wallet full of cash and taking a match to it.
Like they said earlier beofre. MK vs. Looney Tunes featuring MonSTARS.
Mortal kombat trilogy with online play for psn/xbla and I will buy day one... god bless nightwolf
Timothy Saskiewicz
@demistate: Exactly, and more to the point... if there ever is only one game company, someone else will come along with a good idea and make better games. Competition is inevitable.
@Wolf_Dog: The pendulum swings both ways. Eventually there will be a multitude of game companies starting up when credit starts flowing and the economy turns around. This is just part of the business cycle at this point.
demistate
@SpishackCola posts comments Like A Boss:
Sometimes corporations need to be allowed to fail (what the hell's Atari still doing sticking around?). Midway the last few years was dictionary definition of "Epic Fail."
@Mucudadada: So long as they don't get Boardwalk and Park Place in their monopolies, I think we're safe.
@Handsome Al: There can only be one...
The Forgetful Brain
@FillionSmythe: What're you waiting for? GO NOW
Dope boy hero - on a sabbatical.
I'm actually kinda glad that This Is Vegas is saved (for the time being). I thought it looked promising and had a bit of potential.
I'm gonna merge with a hot babe.
@Sloopydrew:
It was either this, or Midway goes bye-bye. Not really a GOTTA BUY 'EM ALL corpokemon sale.
@Wolf_Dog: Is it Activision?
@Wolf_Dog: MidwEActivizzartendo.
It seems like I'm reading about a lot of game companies being bought out. Or I may be seeing the same exact news.
Next: ...
Dope boy hero - on a sabbatical.
Is it too late for Sub-Zero to enter the battle for the cowl?
Sir_Pennyworth
@Mucudadada:
At this rate I expect there to be ONE video game compnay by 2012.
Yay?
Pretty soon every single corporation will merge into one and then we'll have what the old folks called a "monopoly" (so successful, it inspired a game!). At that point, we'll be reminded why we decided these monopolies weren't such a good thing in the first place.
Man I love how the game industry keeps merging and merging. It means we will always get quality products and good prices! Monopolization is awesome!
Oh wait...