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Midway Games

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Midway Games (NYSE: MWY) (formerly Midway Manufacturing) is an American video game publisher. Midway's legacy includes landmark titles such as Ms. Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Mortal Kombat, and NBA Jam. It is currently the 19th-largest video game publisher in the world.

Midway Games
Company typePublic (NYSE: MWY)
IndustryInteractive entertainment
Founded1958
HeadquartersChicago, Illinois, USA
Key people
David F. Zucker, C.E.O.
ProductsMortal Kombat, Spy Hunter, NBA Jam, Rampage, Shadow Hearts
RevenueIncreaseUS$150.1 million (2005)
DecreaseUS$108.5 million (2005)
DecreaseUS$112.5 million (2005)
Number of employees
700
Websitehttp://www.midway.com

History

File:Midway Manufacturing.jpg
One of Midway's past logos.

Midway began in 1958 as an independent manufacturer of amusement equipment which was purchased by Bally in 1969. After some years making mechanical arcade games such as puck bowling and simulated western shoot-out, Midway became in 1973 an early US maker of arcade video games. Throughout the 1970s, Midway was very close to Japanese video game developer Taito, with both companies regurarily licensing their games to each other for distribution in their respective country. Midway entered the consumer market in 1977 by releasing the Bally Home Library Computer; the only home system to ever be developed by Midway.

Midway's real breakthrough success came in 1978, with the licensing and distribution of the seminal arcade game Space Invaders in America. This was followed by the hit U.S. version of Namco's Pac-Man (1980). Ms Pac-Man (1981) followed, becoming the most successful arcade game ever.

In 1981, Bally merged its pinball division with Midway to form the Bally/Midway Manufacturing division. Three games released that year: Solar Fox, Lazarian and Satan's Hollow were the first to feature the Bally/Midway brand. From the late 1970s through the late 1980s, Midway was the leading producer of arcade video games in the US.

File:Bally Midway.jpg
The famous Bally/Midway brand. In use from 1981 to 1990.

The Bally/Midway division of Bally was purchased in 1988 by the arcade and pinball game company Williams Electronics Games through its holding company WMS Industries Inc. The acquisition by WMS marked the end of the original Midway, though WMS retained the majority of Midway's R&D employees. Midway moved its headquarters from Franklin Park, Illinois to Williams's headquarters in Chicago and WMS established in 1988 the new (and current) Midway company as a Delaware Corporation. Midway moved its headquarters from Franklin Park, Illinois to Williams's headquarters in Chicago and WMS established in 1988 the new (and current) Midway company as a Delaware Corporation. WMS also obtained the right from Bally to use the "Bally" brand for its pinball games since Bally had completely left the arcade/pinball industry to concentrate on casinos and slot machines.

Under WMS ownership, Midway initially continued to produce arcade games under the Bally/Midway label while producing pinball tables under the "Bally" brand but in 1991, Midway absorbed Williams' video game division and started making arcade games under its own name again (without the "Bally" part). Much later, in 1996, WMS also purchased Time-Warner Interactive, which included Atari Games, part of the former giant Atari. 1996 is also when Midway changed its original corporate name Midway Manufacturing Company to Midway Games Inc due to its entrance in the home console market. The original arcade division of the company became Midway Amusement Games and the newly created home division was known as Midway Home Entertainment.

In 1998, WMS sold Midway to its shareholders, making Midway an independent company for the first time in almost 30 years. Midway kept Atari Games as a wholly-owned subsdiairy as part of this spinoff. Despite the split off, Midway retained some of the WMS executive staff and used common facilities with WMS for a couple more years. Midway even kept the right on to continue releasing pinball tables under the "Bally" name due to an agreement with WMS. However on October 25, 1999, WMS shut down all of its pinball operations.

Midway, no longer able to use the "Bally" name, also left the pinball industry in order to concentrate itself on videogames. In January 2000, Midway changed the name of its "Atari Games" subsdiary to Midway Games West in order to avoid confusion with the other Atari company, then owned by Hasbro Interactive.

More recently Midway has fallen on hard times; they were listed as the #20 video game publisher in September 2003 and #19 in September 2005 by the magazine Game Developer. On June 2001, Midway shut down its arcade division due to financial losses. On February 2003, Midway closed its Midway Games West subsidiary, putting an end to what was left of the original Atari. In October 2003 Midway said it expected to see about $100 million in revenues for the 2003 year, and $100 million in losses despite this. Sumner Redstone, the head of Viacom/CBS Corporation, is a large investor in the company; he owned 88% of Midway at the end of 2005. Although Midway no longer belongs to WMS, no longer uses any facilities of WMS and has terminated all material agreements with WMS, Midway to this day shares one director with its former parent company.

In 2004 Midway began a purchasing spree of independent video game development studios which "strengthens our internal product development team and reinforces our ability to make high quality games" (From Midway's May 2005 Quarterly Report). In April of 2004 Midway acquired Surreal Software of Seattle, Washington. In October of 2004 they acquired Inevitable Entertainment of Austin, Texas (now known as Midway-Austin). In December of 2004 they acquired Paradox Development of Moorpark, California.

On August 4, 2005 Midway acquired the privately-held Australian-based developer Ratbag. The Studio was renamed Midway Studios-Australia, however it was still known to most people as Ratbag. Four months later, on December 13th, Midway announced to its employees there that it was shutting the studio down, leaving its employees based at that studio without a job. Two days later on the 15th, the studio was closed and their Adelaide premises emptied.

Founded in 1958, Midway is the oldest U.S video game company that is still in this industry today. Midway Games is based in Chicago, Illinois.

List of Midway's Subsidiaries

Divisions

  • Midway Amusement Games : This was the original arcade division of the company (originally founded as Midway Manufacturing Company), and is now an honorary entity which maintains Midway's former arcade games. The Midway, Bally-Midway, and Williams arcade game library are now copyrighted as "Midway Amusement Games, LLC". Midway Amusement Games is located in Chicago just across the street from Midway's main offices.
  • Midway Home Entertainment: Probably Midway's most important division as it is its consumer division. Based in San Diego, California, Midway Home Entertainment publishes and markets all video games made for home consoles and operates with a good degree of independence from its Chicago parent. Midway Home Entertainment is also largely in charge of the relationship between Midway and the console manufacturers of its games (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo). The division originally started in 1986 as a popular Texas video game publisher called Tradewest. The latter company was acquired by WMS Industries in 1994, and was renamed Williams Entertainment, Inc. which in turn became Midway Home Entertainment in 1996. It was Midway Home Entertainment who enabled Midway to enter the video game console market for the very first time and, back then, all console video games were developed by Midway Home Entertainment while all arcade games were by the Chicago studio. For a number of years, Midway Home Entertainment operated in both Corsicana (Tradewest's original site) and San Diego until 2002 when the Corsicana ___location was shut down.
  • Midway Technical/Customer Support: Midway's customer service department. Handles customers inquiries either through the internet or over the phone. The division is located in San Diego but not in the same building as Midway Home Entertainment.
  • Midway Games Ltd: Midway's European branch situated in London, England . The tasks of Midway Games Ltd can be easily compared to those of Midway Home Entertainment in North America. The division Midway Games Ltd should not be confused with Midway Games Inc which is the official name of the whole Midway entity.
  • Midway Germany GmbH: Based in Munich, Midway Germany GmbH publishes, distributes and sells all Midway video games in Germany. Midway Germany GmbH was inaugurated on February 2005 by Midway Games Ltd of London.
  • Midway Games SAS: Midway's newest French division to be located in Paris, France. Midway Games SAS will do the equivalent in France of what Midway Germany GmbH does in Germany. The creation of the division was officially announced in February 2006 but its inauguration doesn't seem to have occurred yet.

Studios

  • Midway Studios - Chicago: Midway's original studio that developed all of its arcade video games. However, the studio now focuses solely on titles for home consoles. Midway Studios - Chicago remains one of Midway's major studio, having developed Blitz: The League for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox and currently working on Stranglehold for the PlayStation 3. Midway Studios - Chicago is housed with Midway's main corporate offices.
  • Midway Studios - San Diego: Located in the building of Midway Home Entertainment, this was the first studio to develop video games by Midway for home consoles. The studio was rumored to have been shut when Midway closed Ratbag. Midway Studios - San Diego is well alive and has been handed the task of completing the game Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War which was started by Stainless Steel Studios. Midway Studios - San Diego also developed in the past Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows.
  • Midway Studios - Austin Inc.: Formerly Inevitable Entertainment which was acquired in 2004 by Midway. Responsible for developing Area 51 (2005 first-person shooter).
  • Midway Studios - Los Angeles Inc: Formerly Paradox Development acquired in 2004 by Midway. Despite its name, the studio is actually located in Moorpark, California. The studio has developed Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
  • Surreal Software Inc: From Seattle, Washington, this it the only studio that has kept its original name following its acquisition by Midway in 2004. Surreal Software has been credited for developing The Suffering: Ties That Bind.
  • Midway Studios - Newcastle: Midway's only studio to be located outside the U.S (although it's been said that Midway recently purchased a German studio that will develop for the PlayStation 3). Midway Studios - Newcastle was originally called Pitbull Syndicate before being acquired by Midway on October 2005. Midway Studios - Newcastle has since then developed L.A. Rush for the company. Midway Studios - Newcastle actually operates from Gateshead just south of Newcastle, England.

List of arcade games developed or licensed by Midway (selection)

¹ Originally developed by Williams
² Originally developed by Atari Games
³ Originally owned by Rareware

List of console games developed or licensed by Midway (selection)

Trivia

  • While it still shares one director with Midway, WMS does not hold any shares in Midway today. From 1988 to 1996, Midway was a wholly-owned subsidiary of WMS. In 1996, WMS sold 15 percent of Midway's stock, retaining the remaining 85 percent. In 1998, WMS sold all its shares and has not bought back any Midway stock since then.
  • As of 2006, Midway Games is currently in a legal battle with Mindshadow Entertainment for the Psi-Ops video game rights. According to mindshadowoline.com, Midway Games copied the Psi-Ops story from their original website called Area 23.
  • A common misconception is that WMS is an acronym standing for "Williams Midway Sente". WMS had little connection to Sente, since Bally/Midway closed its Sente division long before WMS acquired it. Williams became WMS in 1987, a year before the Midway acquisition was announced. When Williams decided to go public, it needed a shell to cover Williams and any future subsidiaries. As a result, Williams created WMS simply as a shortening of Williams.
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