Fiscality?

[DangerousDaze]

Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml) is reporting (via gamesindustry.biz (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/midway-shares-drop-12-per-cent)) that shares in Midway Games fell 12% on the NYSE yesterday. So what, I hear you say. This:

The company is down 67% from its market value this time last year
Sumner Redstone, Midway's majority shareholder, is locked in talks with creditors (never a good sign for a company)
National Amusements, Midway's holding company, last month had to sell $400 million of Viacom and CBS stock to prop up other areas of its business including, it's believed, Midway
On Thursday Midway announced that it had cancelled a number of undisclosed game licenses and pre-announced a bigger loss than expected.
Further investigation by this reporter into Midway's recent filings show that

Midway's losses have doubled in the last 3 and 6 months as compared to 07.
The company sold four Chicago premises on a lease-back arrangement in order to raise capital
They have posted operating losses every year for the last eight years.
Why is all this happening? From their latest 10-Q...Video games have become increasingly more expensive to produce as the platforms on which they are played continue to advance technologically, and consumers demand continual improvements in the overall game play experience. ... we estimate the development cycle for video games for the next-generation of consoles will range from 24 to 36 months, compared to the development cycle for games on the previous-generation of consoles of 12 to 36 months. Our costs related to developing titles on the next-generation of consoles will generally range between $8 million to $36 million per title, which represents a substantial increase in costs incurred to develop previous-generation titles, which ranged from $4 million to $16 million
As an interesting aside, one area of their balance sheet showing an increase in revenue was related to PC games.

[civil]

I ride my bike past their offices nearly every day, and truthfully there doesn't seem to be as much activity as there has in the past (people milling about, lights on, etc).

On a positive note, across the street from them is the best damn hot dog place (http://www.hotdougs.com/default.htm) in the entire universe. They can always console themselves with encased meats.

[JayVe]

Current gen systems are too big and powerful for all but the largest and most profitable development studios can survive, and they REQUIRE blockbuster hits for their increased costs.

[NoName]

So... the economy sucks and most businesses are feeling the hurt?

Also, I love me some good hot dogs. Note to self, visit Civil and get hot dogs while I'm out there.

Edit: Oh JayVe, you and your logic. It's so much easier just to blame everything on the economy and Bush. ;)

[Jeffool]

Current gen systems are too big and powerful for all but the largest and most profitable development studios can survive, and they REQUIRE blockbuster hits for their increased costs.That's only if they're producing 'big budget games'. Hollywood learned that it needed to co-opt indy films by helping indy filmmakers get better production value. There's bound to be a sweet spot between development and budget, it's just a matter of finding it.

Imagine baseball if every batter swung for the fences ever at-bat. We'd have a shitload more strike-outs, and a lot fewer hits. Developers need to just find something that they can do well (or hasn't been done before,) and take a swing at it. There's more than enough potential out there to allow for this, but instead they'd all rather try to be "the next Resident Evil," "the next WoW," or "the next Mario." It's silly.

[AgtFox]

Yeah, when Midway took $90 million earlier this year in order to support their upcoming games and then $40 million recently in order to manufacture and distribute copies of TNA Impact, Blitz II and the upcoming MK vs. DC, everything points to bad for this company even before the economy took a downturn.

MK vs. DC must be a big seller or I question whether Midway will make it through many more quarters.

[Commissar Rob]

So... the economy sucks and most businesses are feeling the hurt?

Agreed. Take a fairly high-risk, capital intensive industry add a mediocre at best company and you get some pain.

Also, I love me some good hot dogs. Note to self, visit Civil and get hot dogs while I'm out there.

This too! It's been too long since I've had a good, authentic Chicago dog. Mmmm, celery salt...

[Johan]

Atari and Midway should merge...and then jump off a very high cliff without a parachute to their inevitable destruction. :(

[bean]

Midway makes Mortal Kombat and then a ton of B titles like NFL Blitz and Wheelman. My bet is that the cost of development makes the creation of games you should know will only sell around 300-500K copies too expensive to show a decent profit.

Hopefully, they'll retool to only create AAA games as the cost of development for them is only slightly higher than the cost of developing current-gen B-games. I'm not sure it will happen though. . . they may just keep rattling out fun rentals that only fans of the series pick up on Day One.

They could go for super inexpensive/indy games too, of course. If you make a good smaller game, you can release it on the Wii, XBLA, and PSN. The problem with this is that they tend to be a developer that is about lots of marketing and little development time. Indy games can have small development teams, but they need to be developed with love too in order to be fun games that have a chance to compete in the low budget market.

[Raen]

MK vs. DC must be a big seller or I question whether Midway will make it through many more quarters.

Given the the numbers on the TNA games yeah, they pretty much do. However unless the MK vs DC game utterly appalling (which everything I read suggests it isn't) then it'll sell huge.

That's only if they're producing 'big budget games'. Hollywood learned that it needed to co-opt indy films by helping indy filmmakers get better production value. There's bound to be a sweet spot between development and budget, it's just a matter of finding it.

This is a very good point. You don't often see that kind of team up in the gaming industry, and it could work well (potentially).

[Xerxes]

Atari and Midway should merge...and then jump off a very high cliff without a parachute to their inevitable destruction. :(

Hey, then I'd get no more Dragon Ball Z games.:mad:

[KingGorilla]

I take it that they do not get much LoTRo money? That is the last successful title I think they had. Are they still publishing Unreal?

[AgtFox]

Given the the numbers on the TNA games yeah, they pretty much do. However unless the MK vs DC game utterly appalling (which everything I read suggests it isn't) then it'll sell huge.
The biggest thing against MK vs. DC is all the top tier games releasing around it. With the economy the way it is many people are going to put games in priority and MK vs. DC may be way down on that list no matter how good it is.

I talk all about this in the analysis article I created for the games coming up until the end of the year on the 360 and PS3:

Midway is pretty much putting all the rest of its marbles toward this game. Recently having borrowed $40 million from its parent company in order to release this fall’s slate of games, the onus is specifically on this game to perform well. If they can catch the magic the series once had long ago it could be a big sleeper game this winter, but there is a lot of competition out there for gamer’s dollars in this economy.

[DangerousDaze]

I take it that they do not get much LoTRo money? That is the last successful title I think they had. Are they still publishing Unreal?

Also from their 10-Q:We generated increased revenues from games played on the PC in recent years and anticipate revenues from PC titles to increase in the future. We launched The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, Stranglehold, Unreal Tournament 3, and Sins of a Solar Empire (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland only) on the PC along with a number of additional titles throughout 2007 and 2008. In the future, as previously announced, we expect to release Wheelman and This Is Vegas.
LoTRo was one of their three top selling title during the three months ended June 30, 2007 in North America.

[Deadend]

Midway publishes alot of games that anyone can tell that they will not sell. Such as the Blitz games.

[Xerxes]

Midway publishes alot of games that anyone can tell that they will not sell. Such as the Blitz games.

Yeah, they have a horrible line up. Maybe they don't want to be one of those publishers laying off folks like hot cakes. Although that might be forced on them. Stranglehold probably didn't turn out as big as they expected. UT 3 isn't carrying anyone on it's back.

[KingGorilla]

Also from their 10-Q:
LoTRo was one of their three top selling title during the three months ended June 30, 2007 in North America.

But are they making money from it? Do they get that sweet subscription money for example?

[Commissar Rob]

Hey, then I'd get no more Dragon Ball Z games.:mad:
Oh there will always be Dragon Ball Z games...

[Xerxes]

Oh there will always be Dragon Ball Z games...

I wonder about that. I remember back when I got my hands on Final Bout, it just didn't look like it would ever happen. I haven't even played none of the ones on ps2 to tell the truth or 360. It's like too many now. I don't know which of the last batch was the one to play or what the differences were. :confused:

I planned to try the next one they come out with because most likely it'll have like 500 characters. :rolleyes:

[LongStepMantis]

I bought Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for PS2 for $20.

It's nothing special, but it is pretty fun. It helps that i used to watch DB a lot though.
Just don't expect it to remain interesting after a week. The novelty wears off by then.

[Commissar Rob]

I wonder about that. I remember back when I got my hands on Final Bout, it just didn't look like it would ever happen. I haven't even played none of the ones on ps2 to tell the truth or 360. It's like too many now. I don't know which of the last batch was the one to play or what the differences were. :confused:

I planned to try the next one they come out with because most likely it'll have like 500 characters. :rolleyes:
Like Dan who is Scurvy says, the 3's are pretty good. Tenkaichi 3 has ridiculous number of characters, and the mechanics are pretty fun. I'd wager you could pick it up in the used $9 bin at a Gamestop. The PS3/360 version was a little different, but limited to the Cell Saga. Very pretty though. Probably a renter.

[Xerxes]

Like Dan who is Scurvy says, the 3's are pretty good. Tenkaichi 3 has ridiculous number of characters, and the mechanics are pretty fun. I'd wager you could pick it up in the used $9 bin at a Gamestop. The PS3/360 version was a little different, but limited to the Cell Saga. Very pretty though. Probably a renter.

I was waiting for it to hit 2 or 3. I'm sure the next version will be a character bonanza.

I wish they would hook up with Akira and come up with a unique story arc just for the games.

[civil]

Also, I love me some good hot dogs. Note to self, visit Civil and get hot dogs while I'm out there.
All you'll get from me is a fistful of crepes you fascist. :p

[LongStepMantis]

I was waiting for it to hit 2 or 3. I'm sure the next version will be a character bonanza.

I wish they would hook up with Akira and come up with a unique story arc just for the games.

I'm of the opinion that he looked at what DB has become, and said "I'm gonna take my pile of money and go..."

Hell, they went ahead and made the plothole bonanza that is GT without any approval from him. He's made it fairly clear that he had/wants nothing to do with anything DB in quite a while. Unless something has changed in the past few years. I don't really keep up with it anymore, and that's fine by me.

[Commissar Rob]

I'm of the opinion that he looked at what DB has become, and said "I'm gonna take my pile of money and go..."

Hell, they went ahead and made the plothole bonanza that is GT without any approval from him. He's made it fairly clear that he had/wants nothing to do with anything DB in quite a while. Unless something has changed in the past few years. I don't really keep up with it anymore, and that's fine by me.
Didn't Toriyama come out and say just that. Something along the lines of, "I've been drawing this stuff for more than a decade and I'm done."

They tried to develop a unique story line for the first PSP game...wasn't pretty imho.