midway posts

It's looking like Warner Bros will be the sole bidder on some of Midway's assets as the once major game publisher sells itself off. The LA Times reports that no other publisher made bids to buy Midway's properties. That means Warner Bros. will almost certainly buy two of Midway's dev studios in Chicago and Seattle along with game IPs such as Mortal Kombat. Two more Midway teams in the UK and San Diego are not part of the Warner. Bros. offer of $33 million.

However the bankruptcy court will have to consider some creditor's claims about the Midway sell-off. That includes Tigon Studios, the Vin Diesel-founder game company who claims Midway still owes them $200,000 for their work on Midway's last game Wheelman.

The massive amount of consolidation in the game industry may be continuing if a new rumor is to be believed. VG247 reports through unnamed sources that Warner Bros. Interactive may be making a play to acquire UK-based Codemasters. According to their (oddly written) story, "they've completed due diligence and buyout discussions are ongoing."

Codemasters' official comment on the rumors is "We have nothing to say on the matter" while Warner Bros. Interactive hasn't commented at all. Warner Bros. has been the US distributor for Codemasters' games for some time and Codemasters' games were being shown at Warner Bros.' exhibit during E3 this year. Warner Bros. is definately set to purchase part of Midway's assets for $33 million.

Several weeks ago Midway announced plans to hold an auction to buy their assets and development studios. They already have a $33 million bid from Warner Bros. Interactive for their Chicago and Seattle based developers and the Mortal Kombat game property. However the same cannot be said of Midway's San Diego and UK based offices.

With a deadline looming, the UK based developer, Midway Newcastle, has decided to make a last minute attempt to get publishers to get interested in their team. Develop reveals the details on their new open world action game called Necessary Force. The developer has even launched a web site for the game containing a teaser trailer. The game itself is about a play-by-his-own-rules style of detective but studio head Craig Duncan insists " . . we don't think anyone's managed to capture the essence of those choices and consequences in games."

Will these actions be enough to get someone interested in keeping the team alive? It's certainly an interesting way of setting themselves out from the crowd.

The next Microsoft published game to be added to the Gametap downloadable game service this week is none other than MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries. Developed by the now defunct Cyberlore and released in 2002 it is the last Mechwarrior game (at least so far) for the PC platform. TThe game is now a part of Gametap's premimum service.

While Gametap has been adding new Microsoft games to its service, the company's official blog site has posted up word that after today a number of classic titles from Midway will be taken off the service. This is due to their license to be used by Gametap expiring and, well, Midway's current financial situation isn't helping anything.

Several days ago Midway announced that it had gotten a bid of $33 million from Warner Bros. to sell off parts of their publishing company, including two development studios and the rights to the Mortal Kombat game license. Today Midway announced the schedule for the bidding process for all of their dev studios and IP rights.

Basically Midway will be taking bids until June 24 to acquire some or all of its remaining assets. That includes four development studios (Chicago, San Diego, Seattle and one in the UK) and the rights to Midway's considerable game library and the license to make games based on the TNA wrestling franchise. An auction will be held on June 29 to determine the final winner or winners and a court hearing to approve the sales will be made on July 1. If we had the money we would totally want to get the Psi-Ops franchise but that's just us.

After losing its shirt, pants and nearly its underpants for years (financially speaking of course) Midway's is now selling off at least part of their company. Today the company announced that Warner Bros. Entertainment has entered a "asset purchase agreement" with Midway to the tune of $33 million.

That price will nab Warner Bros. quite a few of Midway's US assets. That includes the company's Chicago and Seattle based development studios and the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise. However it does not include Midway's San Diego studio nor its UK based studio (where the recently released Wheelman game was made). The price is basically a "starting bid" for Warner Bros. Other companies now have 30 days to offer up any competing bids.

While Wheelman may turn out to be the last game published by Midway Games, the movie version of last March's action-driving title is now moving forward into production. Variety reports that John Singleton has been picked to direct the film adaptation with Vin Diesel set to reprise his game role of an undercover agent who takes on the guise of a getaway driver.

Paramount Pictures will handle the film's production which does not yet have a start date. Diesel became a movie box office draw again thanks to the huge opening of the film Fast and Furious last month. We hope the Wheelman movie turns out better than the game which got only mediocre reviews.

Midway continues to feel the effects of its recent declaration of bankruptcy. The game publisher is going though the motions in bankruptcy court and GamePolitics reports that the company's current majority shareholder Mark Thomas made a filing to the court that sheds a little more light on what might be going on with Midway.

While much of the document has been redacted Thomas claims that Midway will be out of money by late June and there are no games in the pipeline that will be released before that date (Midway got Wheelman out the door with the help of Ubisoft late in March). That may mean the end for This is Vegas, the long-in-development open world action game from Midway internal developer Surreal Software.

Midway's current financial problems (it's currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection) has taken the game publisher through the court system. Now Variety reports that the government-appointed trustee that is going over the bankruptcy proceedings is not happy with some previously reported bonuses that are being given to key Midway executives and employees.

Those bonuses included the selling of their just released Wheelman game to Ubisoft. More bonus money is available if the team can sell off the Mortal Kombat franchise or submit plans to reorganize. Bonus money is paid even if Midway is liquidated. The trustee and the group of unsecured creditors trying to get their money back from Midway slammed the company for these actions.

The report goes after the bonus plan for giving out money for a deal that was made before the bonus deal was written up (the Wheelman sale). In addition they stated, "Selling 'Mortal Kombat' or submitting/completing a reorganization plan are the main jobs of Midway employees now, not something special for which they should be incentivized." They also called the amount of the bonuses, which is worth a total of $3,755,000, 'outrageous' Variety reports that a new 'key employee incentive plan' will be filed by Midway on Tuesday.

The team at Midway's UK based development studio just shipped out their Wheelman action-driving title last week (with a last minute publishing assist from Ubisoft). However, the team is already working on their next game. Play.tm reports that the team will be using some of the tech they developed for Wheelman for an open world style of game as their next project.

According to a statement from Midway's Simon Woodroffe, " . . . our long term plan is to reach the point where we can be genuinely competitive with the big open-world games... the gorilla in the room!." The problem with that plan? Midway itself. The publisher is in the middle of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It's possible that in order to pay off creditors Midway might sell off or even shut down its remaining studios.