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Midway's epic downfall condensed by Gamasutra
For those who didn't keep up with the collapse of Midway in real time, or aren't in the mood to check out every bit of minutia about the epic, Gamasutra has extracted the highlights. The piece showcases the publisher's financial issues -- like the fact Midway hasn't had any annual profits since 1999 -- the management's lack of vision, and finally the last couple years where even the most casual industry observer could watch things go horribly wrong.The second half of the feature covers the anatomy of the disaster and stops short of getting into these past six months, which, in fairness, given the mysterious Mark Thomas, still makes very little sense. It's definitely worth the read for those who want to know how not to run a company, and for those who just like to point and cry at the stupid.
Rumor: Warner Bros. hooked on Midway bait
Just a week after casting itself into uncertain waters, Midway has reportedly gotten a bite -- er, been bitten by Warner Bros. Interactive. Now comes the hard part: reeling in the deal. After losing Eidos to Square Enix, Warner's got a grumbling in its tummy for cheap chow, and for a proposed $30 million, Midway is a relatively inexpensive meal for the big fish to swallow. Still, much of Midway is simply indigestible. An anonymous source tells MCV, "Warner is pretty confident that they will get Midway ... They look ready to put the money on the table." Whether that money is the full $30 million or just a portion of the asking price (for specific IPs like Mortal Kombat, etc.) is allegedly keeping the deal on the line. Will it snap? Oh, the suspense!
Judge says Sumner Redstone treated Midway 'like a toy'
Embattled Midway is back in court, with creditors asking for the head of majority stockholder (and mystery man) Mark Thomas. And Judge Kevin Gross seems inclined to side with the creditors, as bankruptcy proceedings go forward and he calls out former Midway owner National Amusements, Inc. (and it's owner, Sumner Redstone) for treating Midway "like it was a toy." As the publisher's set to run out of money by June, various creditors are in court fighting over the company's remaining assets and, in the process, Judge Gross is reviewing the somewhat dubious sale of Midway to the aforementioned Mark Thomas. To help put the court proceedings into perspective, we contacted Joystiq Law of the Game writer (and total lawyer) Mark Methenitis, who said, "The Midway sale circumstances are the type of facts that often make a court suspicious. Even though NAI's business justification of the sale does seemingly make sense, the sale of a company that size with debts that large for a net amount so small is suspicious to say the least." There's only a few months left until June so we're sure to see the results of this bankruptcy case play out in no time at all. Here's hoping the one profitable team at Midway can save themselves before the whole ship sinks.
Stranglehold film adaptation won't be ready for years
Things have been rough for the film adaptation of Midway and John Woo's 2007 gaming collaboration, Stranglehold. Fans of the 1992 classic action flick Hard Boiled (for which Stranglehold served as a pseudo-sequel) were disappointed to learn that the adaptation would be produced, but not directed, by John Woo. Also, the possible non-involvement of Hard Boiled star Chow Yun-Fat has sullied the excitement of the film's expectant audience.More bad news for fans recently surfaced in an Empire interview with Woo, who explained that the Stranglehold adaptation "won't be ready until years from now." Don't get us wrong -- we love hearing about creators of game-based movies taking their sweet, sweet time with their work, but we're afraid that any further delays could rule out the possibility of Fat's participation. He ain't exactly getting any younger.
You too could own Midway's assets for $30 million
If you're looking to buy a video game company, you could do a lot worse than Midway. Think of it, for just $30 million you could own company assets like the Mortal Kombat franchise ... and ... oh! This Is Vegas! That's sure to ... have Achievement points and Trophies. Plus, you'll be helping a band of Midway employees partake in a no-larger-than $600,000 pool of bonuses, according to Midway's revised key employee incentive plan or "KEIP."If you'll remember, the last form of this KEIP set aside $3.755 million to 29 of its employees if they managed to sell Wheelman and Mortal Kombat. Clearly, it's still a work in progress.
Midway's money almost all the way gone
A US bankruptcy court document filed by Midway owner Mark Thomas (whoever that is!) reveals some dire information about the publisher that helps us understand how the mysterious Thomas was able to acquire the company for $100,000.According to GamePolitics' summary of the document, "Midway will run out of cash in late June," having "operated at a loss for most of the last decade. In addition, the publisher "overstated the value of the Mortal Kombat franchise." CitiGroup attempted, and failed, to find a buyer for Midway, which meant that Thomas had little or no competition. All of this information is just what hasn't been redacted in the document. We assume that the redacted portions deal with the fact that Sinistar is real and that Midway has been exhausting its cash reserves to mine Sinisite in order to make Sinibombs.
Rumor: Three companies looking to purchase Midway
The sharks are circling! According to a rumor at Kotaku, Midway could get bought by one of three different companies. Like the belle of the ball, Midway is being closely examined by each of these potential suitors, who are evaluating the company's potential and examining IPs. These three companies are supposedly Ubisoft, Warner Bros., and a private Chicago investor, all of whom could receive a bounty of IPs upon acquisition of ... oh, who are we kidding? They just want the rights to San Francisco Rush.The rumor also states that Warner Bros. is the most likely candidate, with a representative having already made the trek to Midway for a visit.
Embattled Midway caught in Epic vs. Silicon Knights suit
As Midway continues to fend off the courts and the government whilst floating in bankruptcy limbo, Edge Online reports that the company is now fighting yet another legal battle, this time over attorney fees in the Epic vs Silicon Knights lawsuit. Yeah, it's been a while since we wrote about that. Quick refresher: Silicon Knights is suing Epic over the "inadequacies" of the Unreal Engine used by licensees, which the developer originally used to craft Too Human before opting to create its own engine instead. As part of the proceedings, subpoenas for Unreal Engine records were issued to licensees, one of which was Midway.Now, Midway is asking the court to defer all costs of the record review process to Silicon Knights. Additionally, the publisher is asking that certain documents be redacted so that Silicon Knights will not be exposed to any trade secrets. Midway cites its bankruptcy proceedings as preventing it from paying any costs associated with the review, including the hire of attorneys and former Midway employees.The request resulted in a tit-for-tat between the companies' attorneys, with Silicon Knights responding that Midway's creditors have already approved a monthly expenditure of $35,000 over three months to pay for the review. Silicon Knights' attorneys also state that the company has "taken extraordinary steps" to prevent any "undue burden" on the beleaguered publisher.This is normally where we would make a Mortal Kombat "Finish Him!" joke but, frankly, our hearts just aren't in it.
Feds and creditors decry Midway's 'key employee incentive plan'
Like flies to honey, Midway can't seem to stop attracting controversy as it attempts to stay afloat during its "planned" bankruptcy phase. This time around, the besieged developer is coming under fire from its creditors and the government committee overseeing its bankruptcy proceedings for planning to dish out $3.755 million to 29 of its employees as part of a "key employee incentive plan."According to The Cut Scene, the bonuses were set up to reward the select employees (five of which are supposedly Midway executives) should they manage to sell the Wheelman and Mortal Kombat franchises. The feds and creditors took issue with these goals -- when the "incentive plan" was submitted, Wheelman had already been sold to Ubisoft. The incensed parties also took issue with attaching incentives to the sale of Mortal Kombat -- a duty mandated by Midway's "obligations under the Bankruptcy Code."There are other troublesome points in the plan, such as the fairly high amount of cash it would dispense -- cash that the owed creditors would like to see in their own coffers. Midway will reportedly file an updated (and likely less lucrative) version of the "incentive plan" before its public bankruptcy hearing tomorrow morning.Update: The revised "key incentive plan" was submitted by Midway last night and alters the previous plan in a few key ways. Midway CEO Matt Booty has been subtracted from the equation, leaving four out of 28 potential employees receiving bonuses, and of those 28, the bonus will be based on the amount of money various properties are sold at. The sale of the Wheelman property will no longer be considered as part of the bonus requirements and the Mortal Kombat franchise will only count if "all of its assets" are sold along with it. To read more about what has changed, check out The Cut Scene.
Sumner Redstone appeals Midway sale subpoena, delays deposition
Yesterday, Sumner Redstone was due in a Manhattan court to speak in regards to the sale of Midway to Mark Thomas. That never happened, but Sumner and business partner Robert Steele's attornies did appear in a Bankruptcy court in Delaware on Friday in an attempt to get out of the scheduled deposition, Game Politics reports. As a result, Sumner will now be required to appear this upcoming Friday.Curious is the lack of his daughter, Shari, in any of the proceedings on Friday. She was due to appear in Manhattan last Thursday, March 19th, for her deposition.
Unreal Tournament 3 play jumps 2000%, Steam adds second free weekend
Get this: if you grant free access to a top-tier FPS ... a lot of people will play it. Valve learned this after letting Steam users download and play Unreal Tournament III Black on the house last weekend, to the tune of a more than 2000% increase in simultaneous UT3 players. Valve claims that the conversion rate of trial downloads to full purchases has put the game at the top of its most-downloaded titles, so, being entrepreneurial, it's announced another free-to-play weekend for March 13-15.The promotional $11.99 purchase price for the game (it's usually $19.99) has also been extended through March 22. Given the apparent success of this program, it'd be unreal to think Valve won't try it with more titles in the future. [Via Blue's News]
Rumor: John Woo's Stranglehold to get the film treatment
We thought we'd seen just about every permutation of Hollywood and the game industry's lascivious intersections: The movie based on the game; the game based on the movie; the game based on the movie based on the game, the game based on the movie based on the graphic novel; the movie sequel to the video game; and the video game sequel to the movie. But what about the movie based on the game, which was a sequel to the movie for which the aforementioned movie based on the game is also a sequel ... to? It's confusing, but it's also Hollywood breaking new ground!According to The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriters Jeremy Passmore and Andre Fabrizio are writing a celluloid adaptation of Stranglehold, Midway's 2007 shooter and sequel to John Woo's classic action film, Hard Boiled. Stranglehold saw players assume the role of inspector "Tequila" Yuen (played on the big screen by Chow-Yun Fat) and generally wage war on treacherous gangs, unstable trolleys, unexpected flocks of doves and especially watermelons. We're awaiting a comment from Midway, but this potential adaptation seems like a great idea, especially with many critics describing the first sequel to Hard Boiled as being just like a movie.[Via /film]
Steam: Unreal Tournament 3 free to download, play this weekend
Word of a very real deal regarding Unreal Tournament III on PC comes to us by way of BigDownload. For this weekend -- March 6-9 -- only, those with Steam accounts can download the full game (including the freshly released Titan Pack) and play it for free. Come Monday morning, you'll get to play another game: deciding if it worth $11.99, the promotional price it's going for until March 15.Those who opt for the "No, nuh-uh" option should check out the free -- yet far less pretty -- Quake Live, which just went, er, live last week. You may even get fragged by a Joystiqer. (Yikes, that sounds dirty.)
Former Midway execs subpoenaed over company sale
Looks like the long arm of the law finally caught up to the Redstones, as Sumner and his daughter Shari have both been subpoenaed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Massachusetts, regarding Sumner selling his stake in Midway to Mark Thomas. Both of the Redstones must appear in a New York court later this month for deposition and will provide physical and electronically-stored documents pertaining to the sale of Midway. For some odd reason, Mark Thomas hasn't been called. He bought Sumner's stake in the company for $100,000 and assumed $70 million in debt in doing so, which is something we would assume the court would want to hear about.Speculation suggests that Mark took over the $70 million debt because $30 million of it was secured debt, meaning that it would be paid to Thomas before the bondholders, who are owed a total of $150 million by Midway. The subpoena document states: "The cash collateral order places a clear emphasis on insiders getting paid before and, potentially, at the expense of the estates and their creditors." If you want to read the document for yourself, click here (warning: pdf link).[Via Edge]
Midway would like to keep Mortal Kombat, talks happening
While Midway has offered up the sale of Mortal Kombat in its continued fight for survival, the troubled publisher's confidence in the franchise isn't quite as shaken as may be believed. Company spokesperson Geoff Mogilner recently told MTV Multiplayer that while shedding the visceral brawler "could happen," selling off Mortal Kombat is "not something that we as a company are going for."Even so, Mogilner admitted that there is "definitely interest" from other publishers regarding Mortal Kombat, and that "conversations" are happening, though he wouldn't talk specifics. Still, the corporate spokesperson did estimate that the Mortal Kombat franchise as a whole is responsible for an impressive $1.5 billion, which given Midway's current financial upheaval would certainly come in handy right about now.
Pontiac G8 still in Wheelman despite brand's dire outlook
MTV Multiplayer has pointed out that, although GM's Pontiac line is slowly bleeding out as a casualty of the US economic downturn, Midway's Ubisoft's upcoming Vin Diesel vehicle, Wheelman, will still feature one of its rides: the Pontiac G8. Oh, and there's also a Saturn -- well, the Opel Astra -- in it, evidently. Saturn is no more. (Though last we checked the planet was still there.)At this point, you're probably asking yourself, "Where's the news?" Funny you should ask. It's doubtful that Wheelman will be the last game to feature a Pontiac. Heck, there are all shapes and sizes of racing sims coming out in the next few months, some or all of which will probably feature the GM-owned brand. And lest we forget Transformers: Rise of the Fallen: The Game. (Autobots only wear GM.) It would have been more newsworthy -- not to mention quite cruel -- if Ubisoft announced it was yanking both cars from the game and keeping whatever money Midway was paid to advertise include them.
[Insert new headline about Midway losing money here]
[From the Joystiq accounting department: In an effort to conserve funds in these tough times, we've cobbled together this story about Midway losing money from fragments of other stories about Midway losing money, with a minimum of editing and the small bit of news bolded. Thank you for your patience during these trying times.]As pillars continue to topple all around Midway, the company has begun to search for new ways to [1] plan for survival in its continuing struggle to keep its head above water [2]. But for every small chance at redemption Midway Games finds, there seems to be another piece of bad news hiding around the corner. The latest nugget of news is that [3] budgets estimate that between February 9 and May 4, Midway will spend $12,392,598, an approximately 75% depletion of its reserves.Midway owner ... relatively unknown Mark Thomas [4] says "Midway is hemorrhaging cash at an alarming rate," though we're sure the words he was really looking for were complicated and terrifying [5]. When things are going south as quickly as they have gone for Midway, you take your victories where you can [6], they have already shipped 1.8 million copies of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe! [7]
Report: Midway trying to salvage Ed Boon's promised $1 million bonus
As pillars continue to topple all around Midway, the company has begun to search for new ways to stay relevant, reaching out to one of the last remaining assets left in the struggling publisher's corner. Despite reportedly offering up company darling Mortal Kombat for sale, The Cut Scene reports that Midway hopes to keep series co-creator Ed Boon around -- at least for a while longer -- by continuing to pay bonuses for his role in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and an unannounced series entry in 2009's fourth quarter.Midway has apparently asked bankruptcy court for approval to pay the designer some $900,000 for sales of last year's comic book crossover. Another $105,000 is promised for other MK franchise revenue to Boon, whom Midway describes as "critical to maximizing the value of one of the Debtors' primary assets." The report suggests that keeping Boon around makes Mortal Kombat more attractive to potential suitors, assuming that he tags along if a company happens to open up its wallet. Still, critical or not, paying out bonuses seems like a tall order to fill for an outfit that's up to its eyeballs in debt.
Report: Midway looking to sell Mortal Kombat assets
Midway is reportedly looking to sell off its Mortal Kombat franchise in its continuing struggle to keep its head above water. To put this into perspective, this would be like a family of many children putting the only child who managed to go to college up for adoption on Craigslist. And sure, maybe he only went to community college and dropped out after two years but he nonetheless represents a source of family pride. According to documents allegedly gathered by netDockets, the company's plan for survival includes the "execution of an asset purchase agreement for the sale of Midway's Mortal Kombat franchise assets." What effect this has on that other Mortal Kombat game already in production is anyone's guess. Other goals include ridding the company of its Diesel-fueled Wheelman property, which was rolled in Ubisoft's garage in mid-February. The publisher has reportedly set aside $3,755,000 to be split among among 29 of the publisher's "officers, management-level employees and other non-insider key employees" if these milestones are met. That's a hefty sum, though we question how thrilled Midway's creditors (not to mention former employees) will be as execs continue to gut the embattled publisher in the name of filling their own gold-lined pockets.Update: Geoff Mogilner, Midway head of investor relations, tells Edge, "We're not going out of our way to sell Mortal Kombat." That's not say, Midway wouldn't sell Mortal Kombat ...
Wheelman dev calls PS3 a 'pain in the ass,' Xbox a 'dumb PC'
Did you know that some developers consider the PS3 difficult to develop for? You can add the Wheelman team at Midway Newcastle to that list, following candid comments by the game's executive producer.Appearing on the This Xbox Life podcast, Shaun Himmerick was questioned on developing for 360 and PS3, to which he responded, "The politically incorrect answer is that the PS3 is a huge pain in the ass. Anyone making a game, if you're going to make it for both, just lead on the PS3 because if it works on the PS3, it'll work on 360.""We had to play catch up on the PS3 because of the memory constraints and how it renders -- how it processes is just different. And it's harder on the PS3," Himmerick continued. "The Xbox is just like a dumb PC, which is great because it's easier to build a game on a PC." Somehow, we don't think Vin Diesel would appreciate anyone whining about making his game. In fact, if he'd listened to said podcast, he'd probably be on his way to Newcastle right now to give them something to really cry about ... and maybe the latest PS3 SDK.[Via D+PAD]
