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Warner Was Sole Bidder For Midway

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

June 28, 2009

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Warner will likely complete its acquisition of the majority of Midway’s assets after no other bids were lodged for the bankrupt publisher.

The deadline for submitting bids to buy Midway Games passed last week with Warner’s $33-million offer the only one on the table.

"No other bids came in, so there's not going to be an auction," Midway spokesperson Geoff Mogilner told the LA Times.

However, Warner will be unable to complete the transaction until the complaints of a number of creditors seeking to block the deal have been resolved.

A bankruptcy court will need to rule on a case brought against Midway by production company Threshold Entertainment, which is suing the publisher in a bid to retain IP rights for the Mortal Kombat franchise, while Vin Diesel’s production company, Tigon Studios, also claims it is owed $200,000 for the actor’s work on Wheelman. According to the Times, the court hearing to address these issues will take place on July 1.

If the buyout is approved it would see Warner acquire the Mortal Kombat franchise and Midway's Chicago and Seattle-based development studios, among other assets. The proposed agreement does not include the sale of Midway’s TNA wrestling franchise, or its development studios in San Diego and Newcastle, UK. Midway Newcastle, which is currently working on open-world action game Necessary Force, has just days to find a buyer or face closure.

OmegaVader's picture
On June 29th OmegaVader said:

Is anyone actually going to miss Midway?

Mancubus's picture
On June 29th Mancubus said:

More than I would miss comments like this...

StealthBadger's picture
On June 29th StealthBadger said:

Right.. Anyway, I don't think anybody's cared about mortal kombat in a while, and wheelman was ass. What else have midway been doing recently? I lose track of these things.

Mancubus's picture
On June 29th Mancubus said:

The guys who made Stranglehold and Psi-Ops, the guys who made The Suffering and Drakan (who might still be working on This is Vegas, although I wouldn't be surprised if this one would have been shelved long ago.)

And they have almost forgotten IPs, that will never be popular again (Cruis'n, Rush, NFL Blitz, Rampage, SpyHunter, and so on...). Nothing worth this much money. Sadly I don't see much hope for the Midway-brand and I really wish the Newcastle-studio that they will find a buyer soon enough. Pitbull Syndicate made some solid Test Drive games and with the right support they could probably do much better. Plus Necessary Force sounds interesting enough for me.