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Midway Games

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Midway Games (NYSE: [MWY]) is an American video game publisher known for such game series as Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam and Spy Hunter. Midway traces its roots back to the Chicago electro-mechanical amusement scene. In a time when video game arcades didn't yet exist, the U.S coin-op business was dominated by mechanical machines with the Chicago area being the stronghold of that industry. Back then, many new companies were emerging from the Windy City or its suburbs. Midway was one of those companies.

Contents

History

One of Midway's past logos.
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. However 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 a series of lucrative titles including the hugely successful Pac-Man (1980)  and Ms Pac-Man (1981). 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. 



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

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. 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 owned by Hasbro Interactive. 


Midway's legacy includes games that were landmarks of their time, such as Spy Hunter, Tron, Mortal Kombat, and NBA Jam.  


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



Studios





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







External links














 





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