Midway Facing Tough Times

[DoctorFinger]

There was a time not terribly long ago that Midway was a big publisher. Not EA big, or Nintendo big enough to be a force in gaming. When you look at the company today, that era seems like a long, long time ago.

Variety (http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2008/11/midway-what-wen.html) has an in depth analysis of what went wrong with the venerable Chicago based publisher. Chief among the reasons: a small slate of mostly low profile games, resulting in a need to sometimes push titles out the door before they're ready (Blacksite: Area 51) just to stay afloat. Then there was the decision to use the Unreal 3 engine for all of their games, which may have sounded like a good idea at the time, but in the end caused a lot of headaches.And while there were lots of little things, one issue popped up again and again: Midway's decision to license Unreal Engine and use it for ALL its games.

"The mistake we made was, instead of just taking the base Unreal 3 engine that 'Gears of War' was made on and building games off of that, we let our tech and product development guys try to really modify the engine to add all these diff things," one ex-employee told me. "It was a ton of new technology which they just weren’t capable of doing. It put all the games way behind schedule."

Even though Midway invested millions in building a common tech base for all its studios, apparently they all had to adapt UE3 for each project, which meant they couldn't share resources in a timely manner, so none of the promised benefits materialized. Making the code work for PS3 was particularly hard, sources said, and so games just weren't coming out. Another major problem facing the company is it's mounting debt. That amount of red ink makes Midway more expensive to buy than other companies in it's position, like THQ. That means the company would likely have to enter bankruptcy before any suitors could be found. Ben Fritz goes so far as to speculate that Midway could meet a similar fate as Atari; the name lives on in some form even as the company as we currently know it ceases to exist.

Source - Variety (http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2008/11/midway-what-wen.html).

[LongStepMantis]

I feel bad for them because they've been around for quite some time.

That being said, it's been a long time since I bought a game they made and didn't regret it later. The last handful of MK releases (excluding MKvsDC...haven't played it of course so I can't say) have felt weaker and less interesting each time. I liked Deception a lot. Too bad they went in the wrong direction after that.

[Telefrog]

Midway hasn't had a good game in years. I don't expect MK vs DC to change that.

[LongStepMantis]

Midway hasn't had a good game in years. I don't expect MK vs DC to change that.

I don't expect it to either. I just figured I'd give them the benefit of the doubt until I had a chance to try it myself.

Like I said, I liked Deception. It was mediocre as a fighting game, but the inclusion of the free-roaming story mode made it unique among fighters. It gave me a sense of immersion that I don't often feel in games of that genre.

The last MK games before that I liked were the original trilogy.

[bean]

You can blame management decisions and tech, but the real problem is that they greenlight games with very limited appeal. The only decent franchises they have are Mortal Kombat and Blitz: the League. The person to blame for Midway's decline is whoever greenlit Wheelman, Area 51, Hour of Victory, The Suffering, and NARC. They don't seem to have management that knows anything about gaming, and they are trying to make "safe bets" by copying the styles and gameplay of better games that are famous for doing it first and doing it better.

Money CAN be made iterating on another company's game design, but you have to do enough to make it your own game. For instance, Saint's Row is clearly a clone of GTA 4, but it has so many innovations (especially before GTA 4 came out and copied the many improvements made in the original Saint's Row), and the style is so much more over-the-top and humorous that Saint's Row works. They are like watching two different zombie films. . . lots in common, but both worth watching.

Midway's knock-offs come off as rushed, unloved, and poorly designed. If they want to survive, they are going to have to start doing what the other publishers have been doing and spend more time and money on a small number of titles that are excellent. At $60, there is very little place in this industry for "B" games. Go AAA or go casual. If you want an in-between risk, go make something for the Wii. Of course, Midway would then have to make games that are not almost exclusively marketed towards males 18-40.

I'm not saying they should have only made Mortal Kombat, Blitz, and movie games, of course. They should also greenlight other projects, but I can't imagine being present with the game design document for Wheelman, Area 51, or Hour of Victory and thinking that this game might be great. . . unless the game design document described very different games and the development teams failed to execute or the management failed to provide expected resources. . . Hmm. Okay, really any of these things could ruin a game.

[Telefrog]

If you want an in-between risk, go make something for the Wii. Of course, Midway would then have to make games that are not almost exclusively marketed towards males 18-40.

The certainly can't make Wii games using UE3. :D

[MachEnergy]

Back during the days of Dreamcast, I felt Midway was at their peak. They made so many great games and continued that into the early years of XBOX, but it was starting to wane by that point. MK: Shaolin Monks was probably the last Midway game that I really liked.

I wish they would have stayed more arcadey with their "sports" titles. Blitz was amazing up through 2001. The first NHL Hitz was great too. It all went downhill, for me, when they tried to add more realism. NBA on NBC was the last basketball game they did that I really liked. Hoopz just didn't have it, and Ballers was fun but fleeting.

I would love them forever if they would release the Dreamcast version of San Francisco Rush 2049 on XBLA.

[JayVe]

I would love them forever if they would release the Dreamcast version of San Francisco Rush 2049 on XBLA.

This idea is all kinds of win. While you're at it, why not add Hydro Thunder to the XBLA list? Heck, they could probably be done on WiiWare too.

[MachEnergy]

This idea is all kinds of win. While you're at it, why not add Hydro Thunder to the XBLA list? Heck, they could probably be done on WiiWare too.

I second this motion for Hydro Thunder. In fact, I'd even like to play 4x4 Thunder again, but just for the awesome "pass the bomb" multiplayer game. My friends and I would play tag for hours. Maybe it was only fun to us though. I mean, these are the same guys that would play tag in Mario 3's minigame where you can steal a card by jumping on the other person's head. We did that for hours.

[JayVe]

I second this motion for Hydro Thunder. In fact, I'd even like to play 4x4 Thunder again, but just for the awesome "pass the bomb" multiplayer game.

Wasn't this on the Dreamcast too? I seem to remember the announcer.

"FOOOOURRR WHEEEEL THUNDERRRRRR!!!"

Also, if you weren't in 1st place, the instant you touched the finish like, the announcer was right there in your face with an intimidating, "YOU LOOOOOSSSSEE!!!"

[Gorvi]

I still have Hydro Thunder on Dreamcast. Hell, that's enough right there for me to dig the system out of the closet. :)

[MachEnergy]

i still have hydro thunder on dreamcast. Hell, that's enough right there for me to dig the system out of the closet. :)

checkpoint!!!

[Re3x]

THQ and Midway need to get together and think of some new IPs that dont suck.

[Xerxes]

I think Blacksite would have been big. Nooooo, let's release an unfinished game. I thought the demo had legs.

[Sandman]

TNA Impact! is hitting the bargain bins already in some places. If MK vs DC goes the same way Midway is doomed.

[Maskatron]

Hydro Thunder with a steady framerate would be ace.

[KingGorilla]

THQ possesses licenses on valuable franchises. It has Relic, whose RTS titles are very successful, as well as rights to a Warhammer 40K MMO. Midway's future really hinges on MK vs DC. I could see someone, regardless, taking a holding in the company just to part out its Arcade franchises to places like Gametap, and the console services.

What does this mean for LOTRO? Midway is the US publisher.