Shareholders who lost millions when Midway went bust have failed to convince a federal court judge that top executives at the company deceived the public about the ailing financial state of the publisher.

Plaintiffs had alleged that former executives - including CEO David Zucker and chief financial officer Thomas Powell - failed to reveal the company’s ill health while simultaneously selling their stock for millions of dollars.

However, the judge in the case ruled that the plaintiffs failed to show that the executives “said or did anything more than publicly adopt a hopeful posture that its strategic plans would pay off”, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Midway Games filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2009. The publisher later sold the majority of its US assets, including the Mortal Kombat franchise, to Warner Bros, while Midway Europe was purchased in a management buyout.