Tag Archives: Midway

We had no idea it was abnormal for professional basketball players to catch on fire until well-past our childhood years. Why? NBA Jam. Big heads, bigger dunks, and spontaneous combustion meant that NBA Jam could never be accurate – but damn was it ever fun. And now, according to ESPN‘s sources, the high-flying franchise is gearing up for a comeback.

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This is Vegas canned? Not a chance, says Warner Bros.

“This is Vegas has not been cancelled,” a WB spokesperson told G4. “The game is currently in production.”

And so, like the nightlife vampires it depicts, This is Vegas is not so easily killed. The wet T-shirted dream lives on, for better or for worse.

According to a report on Action Trip, Midway’s glitz, glamor, and sleaze simulator This is Vegas has probably been canned.

Apparently, GameStop has informed preorderers that the game won’t be making it into their surprisingly eager hands, so that’s probably that.

The cancellation can most likely be attributed to Midway’s recent sale to Warner Bros.

And so passes the front runner in the race to make the dream of virtual wet T-shirt competitions real.

More through the link.

After being plucked from financial quicksand by Warner Bros., Midway’s been having a bit of an identity crisis. Now though, it seems the drama’s done and over, because according to superannuation, a very crucial piece of Midway has been rebranded.

The gist of it is that two former Midway employees — who are now with Warner Bros. — list themselves as working for WB Games Chicago on social networking site LinkedIn. One profile also details the guts of WB’s game development force, which “includes Monolith Productions, Surreal Software, Snowblind Studios and WB Games Chicago.”

Midway’s Chicago studio developed Mortal Kombat, among other titles.

We’ve put in an email to Midway asking for confirmation, and will let you know as soon as we hear more.

Kotaku sends word that Midway’s Vin Diesel-centric open worlder has hit a snag. Originally scheduled for February 20, it’s now dropping exactly one slightly truncated month later on March 20.

Fortunately, a pre-release demo has been squeezed out of Midway’s emaciated form, though when it’ll actually ooze onto Xbox Live and PSN is anyone’s guess.

For those who are interested, a few new screens are also lurking on the official Wheelman page. To be honest, though, we were way too distracted by the game’s totally rad website to spend much time with a few immobile, buzz-killing screens. Seriously, go check it out. It’ll make a man out of you.

By Nathan Grayson

Shacknews sends word that Midway’s playing its trump card in its duel with fate’s cruel whims.

Apparently, the beleaguered publisher was able to convince a portion of its investors to delay enacting their money-back guarantee – applicable because a large portion of Midway recently changed hands — until February 19. If Midway’s able to talk down a second group of investors in a similar fashion, the SEC won’t blow the publisher’s house down until February.

However, Midway’s pertinent debt currently sits at $150 million, and Vin Diesel’s wild ride doesn’t begin until February 20.

Please, someone, spoil this story’s ending. We’re somewhat confused and very tired of waiting.

By Nathan Grayson

Gears 2, your days as prettiest hulking man-girl on the block are numbered. At least, they are if Midway creative director Simon Woodroffe is to be believed.

“I just saw a demo of a new Midway game that’s in development. I can’t tell you too much about it, but they’ve been on it for three months and it looks as good if not better than Gears 2,” he told VideoGamer.

“This is only possible because of the sharing of technology,” he added – in direct opposition to earlier allegations that Unreal 3 tech-sharing had yanked Midway into a “spiral of doom.”

“[The secret game]‘s already looking as good as Gears 2, but the game mechanics are kind of different. It’s going to be really big and really important,” Woodroffe explained. “It’s not often, especially when you’re a cynical type, that you see a prototype or creative slice and just get blown away by it. But in this case, the hype is justified.”

Additionally, he mentioned another “really cool game” rattling around in Midway Chicago’s oven, but stopped short of saying anything other than the words “really,” “cool,” and “game.” Apparently, both titles are slated for a 2010 release.

More talk about sharing and caring through the link.

By Nathan Grayson

To be frank, things aren’t looking so hot for Midway. But according to Variety, at least now we have something to blame: Unreal Engine 3.

“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,” an ex-Midway employee said.

“It was a ton of new technology which they just weren’t capable of doing. It put all the games way behind schedule.”

And thus, Midway was forced to grab a few hundred shovels and dig itself into the hole in which it now resides.

“The delays of next-gen titles pushed them into a window where money became very tight for the company,” said former CMO Steve Allison.

“When that happens decision-making can become focused around not always what is best for each title, but how to fix cash flow issues. This is a spiral of doom in videogame publishing because you can’t ship compromised titles against the exceptional quality level of competition that is on the shelves.”

Hopefully, we won’t be getting the full-disclosure treatment from any more “former” employees, since we imagine Midway would prefer to keep those they currently have. Good luck, everyone.

More through the link.

By Nathan Grayson

Midway’s confirmed Matt Booty is to take a full-time role as CEO and president of Midway.

He’s served as interim boss of the first since March this year, when David Zucker “left” the company after some seriously impressive cash-losing.

“Over the past two quarters we have made progress reducing costs, realigning our studios, and improving execution on our game launches,” said Booty.

“Along with the rest of our management team, I am committed to continuing to drive this progress and maintain a sharp focus on the successful implementation of our plans for the fourth quarter and beyond.”

Press release after the link.

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