Tag Archives: Martin Spiess

Midway Europe head Martin Spiess has bought out the management division of his former employer and will now run the company as Tradewest Games, which published games Double Dragon and Ikari Warriors in the eighties and nineties.

Enfolding the UK and French offices into one, Spiess plans on staying in the publishing business.

“We are very glad to have acquired the rights to such an internationally well-known brand of such tradition in the gaming industry,” Spiess told MCV. “Under the name Tradewest Games we will as of now be acting as a European full service provider in the fields of game distribution and publishing.

“We have access to a wide-reaching global network of game developers and international partners from all relevant areas of the games industry.”

“This is a brand representative of tradition, a name under which a well-known North American game publisher operated between 1986 and 1994,” added a company spokesperson.

More through the link.

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission has revealed that Midway’s managing director for Europe, Martin Spiess, has purchased Midway’s France and UK offices for €1/86 pence.

Midway UK and France are now owned by Spiess Media Holding UG and Midway’s European teams now have 90 days to sell the rest of the Midway stock they are holding.

Basically a management buyout, Midway Germany’s general manager Uwe Fürstenberg has purchased his end as well.

A clause in the agreement says the offices must drop the Midway name immediately.

Loads more financial and legal stuff regarding this are over on MCV.

Speaking to GI, Midway international boss, Martin Spiess, has expressed concern that Xbox 360 is “lagging” behind other consoles in various European countries.

“I don’t know what it’s like for other companies, but the market is not as big as the US market, so naturally we have lower attachment rates,” he said.

“But it could be growing to the same size as the US – the only problem we have right now is that we see in certain territories Microsoft is lagging behind.

“Sony has become very strong, Nintendo has become very strong, but the Microsoft market in certain territories is concerning.”

More through the link.

Speaking to MCV, Midway’s international EVP Martin Spiess has said that Eastern Europe is to become a key focus for the publisher’s growth this year.

“One of our main strategic goals moving forward is to improve the ‘quality of sales’, which by definition is the ratio between sell-in and sell-through,” he said.

“In order to achieve that, we’re ramping up our marketing efforts drastically. We’re also working hard to further improve our footprint in PAL territories, particularly Eastern European markets.”

Drastic footprints. Go Midway.