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Midway needs funds, badly...


The Coop
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http://kotaku.com/5102225/midway-are-50-days-away-from-bankruptcy

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/midway-nearing-bankruptcy-needs-150-million-in-50-days/?biz=1

So it seems that long time game maker, Midway, is not in the best of shape right now. According to various articles, Midway is in need of $150 million in the next 49 days, or they may have to declare bankruptcy (or potentially worse over time). They also look to possibly default on $240 million in debt. Needless to say, I'm surprised they're not in the "Bailout" line in Washington DC.

Now yes, we all know Midway has a rather roller coaster-like history in terms of game quality. Back in the day, they were one of the premier game makers, releasing classics like Gauntlet, Rampage, and Spy Hunter (not to mention their share of pinball tables under Bally). Later, they had hits like the Mortal Kombat and "Rush" franchises. But over the last ten-plus years, their output hasn't garnered the number of classics that it used to, and it seems the increase in mediocre reviews and/or sales have caught up with them.

They're not likely to vanish, but like a lot of things in today's market, the possibility is there. I grew up playing their classic arcade games, and certainly have fond memories of various console ports/originals. But after watching what happened to other companies in the past like Atari and Sega after rough stretches financially, I do wonder what lies ahead for Midway.

Thoughts or comments?

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When they release something worth supporting, I'll gladly provide them with funds. If they can't produce something worthwhile, they deserve to crash and burn. It's that simple. Survival of the fittest, and all that. Hopefully the few individuals with actual talent can find a more rewarding job with a more successful company.

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49 days to find $150 million? A year ago, they might have been able to pull that off somehow a year ago. With credit markets what they are though, I will be very surprised if they manage to wrangle anything close to that.

And to be honest they haven't made a great game in years that I can think of, and there are plenty of companies and industries that employ a lot more people and would be better choices to lend financing (not the automakers if the status quo remains though), so I'm not even sure I can say they deserve to be bailed out by anyone over other failing businesses.

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Midway's time seems to have come and gone -- the only thing they have coming out right now is MK vs DC, and that's released inbetween SSF2THDR and SF4...not a great time for other fighters to enter the arena.

On the subject of old Midway games, am I the only person who really enjoyed the arcade version of Gauntlet Legends? I thought it was great, though the N64 version wasn't nearly as fun (because of the lack of HP drain more than anything).

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Not sure why Midway would be part of the bailout line - they're not a financial institution, nor does them going under affect jobs on a massive scale like the big 3 of the auto industry.

Midway hasn't had a hit in a long time though, and so it doesn't seem too surprising that they're in this financial predicament.

I wasn't really talking about being bailed out by the government. If anyone gives them financing then they're bailing them out and with no real gain I can see except for saving probably a few hundred jobs for a while longer. I'm honestly surprised Midway has managed to go this long on the string of crappy games they've put out.

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  • 2 weeks later...
It's a close call whether Activision or EA "bails" them out. Though I kind of want Sega to step in.

Isn't Sega owned by some Japanese pochinko company or something to that effect? I always wanted Nintendo to buy out Sega...

As for Midway. I'll always have the original Mortal Kombat in my heart, when I was young lad.

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Midway are now like Acclaim were back in the day (which actually wasn't that long ago).

They had a few good games, one good solid franchise, but released a load of duff titles at the same time. Look where they ended up. On the scrapheap, liquidated, putting Burnout into the capable hands of EA. Who knows, some other company picking up Mortal Kombat could bring some much-needed life and stability back to the franchise (along with it's recently MIA M-rating).

Seems they've been trying (and failing) to live off annual releases of Midway Arcade Classics for way too long now, they deserve to drop off the map for that.

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  • 2 months later...

As has been learned, Midway filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, giving them a chance to try and straighten themselves up, rather than go down the gaming tubes. But, that's not all that's been going on...

http://kotaku.com/5162447/midway-offloading-mortal-kombat-and-screwing-former-employees

Is it simply a matter of protocol, or is it a means to sneak away from promised funds? Time will tell. But that's not all...

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/958/958267p1.html

As the first article hinted at, and the IGN articles addresses, Midway may try to sell off their most well known franchise, Mortal Kombat, very soon. They're still trying to get money, but at the moment, it seems more like money to give bonuses to various employees, and less like money to stay afloat. Could Midway be following the questionable lead of various banks who got bail out money, or are people reading too much into their choice of words in this distrustful time?

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