You have probably heard by now that Midway has gone bankrupt and they owe millions of dollars to different companies for various reasons. While Midway stopped making arcade games several years ago (and many of their arcade development people went over to companies like Raw Thrills and Play Mechanix), with this bankruptcy news this has me wondering what is going to become of the many arcade game properties that they hold on to. In addition to their long line-up of titles that goes as far back as the 1970’s, they also bought up Atari Games back in 2001 or so and so they also own all of the great games that AG made from 1984 (like Marble Madness) up to Rush 2049. So now it remains to be seen – will Midway’s properties be broken up and sold to different bidders or will someone scoop up all of the arcade stuff to bring some of those titles back to where they belong?
I know that is a long shot and thus wishful thinking but if I had a few million bucks I’d totally buy up Atari Games and bring them back from the dead with a vengeance. KLAX, Paperboy, T-Mek, Gauntlet Legends and others would be cool games to bring back although there’s plenty of original stuff that could be done as well. What are your thoughts on the final demise of Midway?
What ever happened to that guy in Australia that bought all of Williams Pinball’s parts/rights to produce parts? I know he had an ill fated/ill timed “Crocodile Hunter” pinball machine about to come out when Steve Irwin died, but I have not heard anything since.
Midway is dead. FATALITY!
Hmm,maybe if they stoped consoles and kept video games to the arcades,they wouldnt go bust,its piracy as well thats hurting the companys,sad to here about midway mortal kombat was my fav :)RIP
Chapter 11 dose not mean closure. There is now a situation of dissemblance (selling licenses and studios). There is also the possibility of acquisition of the brand.
I played Mortal Kombat throughout the summer of 1993! Mortal Kombat 2 was big at Southampton Quasar and had a number of regulars. When I played Mortal Kombat 3 at the newly-opened Sega Park, all the staff sat around and watched me perform fatalities. MK was also a multi-million dollar franchise, spawning T-Shirts, films, a music album and TV series (can’t say I was a fan of these other things though).
Thankfully I have MK 2 & 3 on Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for XBOX and while they certainly have aged, the fond memories are as sweet as ever!
I don’t think they really have that many valuable IPs left. MK is about the only one that still seems to sell quite well, which surprises me because from a gameplay and balance point of view they’ve continued to be pretty shoddy affairs.
All the talent that created their best games have long ago jumped ship.