Midway Felled by "Perfect Storm" of Problems, Says Former CEO

Logan Westbrook

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Feb 21, 2008
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Midway Felled by "Perfect Storm" of Problems, Says Former CEO



Midway was tantalizing close to turning its fortunes around when a run of bad luck brought it down.

Midway's collapse last year was due to bad luck, and not the company's years of losses and significant debts, said former CEO and chairman Matt Booty. In fact, there was light at the end of the tunnel, he said, when the company was hit by a "perfect storm" of problems.

Midway had reported a loss every year since 1999, but Booty said that its final Mortal Kombat game, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, had sold quite well, and that while the company was far from successful, it had at least figured out the right direction. When the economic downturn hit however, everything fell apart.

Midway's parent company, National Entertainment was hit hard by the credit crunch, and offloaded Midway to an investor called Mark Thomas, netting National Entertainments owner Sumner Redstone a significant tax rebate. The change of ownership meant that Midway was obliged to try and repay its debts much sooner than it would have had Redstone held on to it, and at that point there was nothing that could be done.

When it became clear that Midway was doomed, Booty said that his priorities shifted to trying to keep the development teams together as much as possible, something he was fairly successful at. The Mortal Kombat team was bought by Warner Bros. and became NetherRealm Studios. The Seattle team was also snapped up by Warner, and the San Diego studio was bought by THQ.

Booty is now head of Microsoft Game Studios' new mobile gaming division. He said that he had been lucky to have a number of choices when Midway collapsed, but chose Microsoft to get back to "front-line game production."

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30660/Booty_Perfect_Storm_Hit_Midway_Just_When_Success_Drew_Near.php]


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snowman6251

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Nov 9, 2009
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I mean it sucks for the people who worked there but did anyone really care about Midway?

I can't think of a single game they made that I liked that came out any time in several generations.

I don't like Mortal Kombat either. There are many, significantly better, fighters out there.
 

Logan Westbrook

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Feb 21, 2008
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Daystar Clarion said:
I thought Midway failed because every game they made was shit.
No, they made...er.....there was also...actually that was EA....oooh they did......

I got nothin'
 

Onyx Oblivion

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Sep 9, 2008
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The only thing Midway published that I cared about was Shadow Hearts.

Mortal Kombat was always a shitty franchise that aged rather poorly, due to it's focus on gore rather than smooth fighting mechanics.
 

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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Rampage, NBA Jam Gauntlet, all awsome gmaes, the last gauntlet was kinda crap and they havnt done one fo rthe current generation witch is very sad :(
 

fozzy360

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Oct 20, 2009
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Am I the only one that remembers The Suffering and it's sequel? Sure, they were developed by Surreal, but at least Midway had the good sense of publishing them, right?
 

Jared

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Jul 14, 2009
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Goes to prove just a few shiort margins can fell even the mightest. Its a shame really
 

SMOKEMNHALO2001

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Sep 10, 2008
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Well Matt did save a lot of jobs so that goes to show at least he knew what he was doing.
Poor Midway, wait didn't they have a deal with Vin's game studio Tiger or some crap?
 

tendo82

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Nov 30, 2007
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Daystar Clarion said:
I thought Midway failed because every game they made was shit.
That's the perfect storm he's talking about; an eight year continual storm of their shitty games failing to gain any traction in the marketplace.