When Variety's The Cut Scene blog tackled the subject, they found out that, according to ex-employees, Midway's decision to license Epic's Unreal Engine was a huge part of delays and declining game quality. One ex-employee even said that "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 [different] things.…It put all the games way behind schedule."
Most likely due to their focus on the Unreal Engine, Midway has barely been able to capitalize on the success of the Wii. Their only Wii-exclusive titles have been the moderately successful Game Party franchise. On the DS, their only releases this year have been Mechanic Master and TouchMaster 2. Currently, they have no future games planned for any Nintendo system.
Midway's decision to license Epic's Unreal Engine was a huge part of delays and declining game quality.
Unreal Tournament III was pretty good as far as first-person shooters go. It's in the upper tier of this console generation.
However, Midway's problem simply comes down to bad management. OK, so you're bleeding cash...why would you license the Unreal Engine, which basically forces you to make an expensive, high-risk/high-reward game? Do what Majesco did and start making stuff like Cooking Mama. Scale back and concentrate on making money and getting financially solid again, instead of gambling everything on a small number of costly titles. Leave that to the big boys that can absorb the losses.
So what they need to do is "trick" themselves into making arcade games. Design games as if they are made for the arcade but then effectively "port" them to the consoles.
Mk vs DC sales will make this whole thing go away.
Mk vs DC sales will make this whole thing go away.
every reviewer says rental
And if they ever made a Mortal Kombat with digitalized sprites again I'll bet the novelty factor alone would get people interested.
Midway's games have begun to cost more and more money.
I still can't fathom how they were the kings of Pinball, then the kings of Fighters and they somehow managed to piss it all away. They will no doubt be discussed in business schools some day on what NOT to do.
Those of you pushing the "developing hardcore games is folly" idealogy do realize the Midway SUCKS as a game developer, right? It doesn't matter what console you support, if your games suck and you're in financial trouble that means everything is right with the world. Now if Midway was releasing GOTY candidates every few months and still was losing money on the PS3/X360 then you've got something.
Right, but even though Midway sucks and makes crap games, they would still be better off if they released those crap games on the Wii,
Yes I think we can all agree that the best place to sell crap games is on the Wii.
Then again I wonder if crappy shovelware really sells better on the Wii than other consoles...
Shovelware is still profitable, but just barely. It certainly wont cover the losses if your big budget game bombs.
Is Midway the company that made those weird jousting games from the arcade days? Because if they are, they should really redo that whole franchise on the Wii (of course) so you can do jousting with your wii-mote and use your nunchuck to move the ostrich thing around. With spruced up 21st century graphics and motion control, it would probably do well enough.
Otherwise, yeah, Mortal Kombat is always a safe beat. Why don't they take one of the characters, like Scorpion for example, and spin him off into a new franchise as a platformer game where he throws his harpoons around to get from one platform to the next. Kinda like Mario, but with a harpoon instead of jumping. He could also have Reptile by his side, and Reptile would be like Luigi so it could be a two player game, and Midway could title it "Super Mortal Bros." or something... Man, they should put me in charge of their company because I think I could really turn things around for them. :P
Otherwise, yeah, Mortal Kombat is always a safe beat. Why don't they take one of the characters, like Scorpion for example, and spin him off into a new franchise as a platformer game where he throws his harpoons around to get from one platform to the next.
Gauntlet Legends Neo for Wii plz
Gauntlet Legends Neo for Wii plz
I so second this. I play Gauntlet for the N64 years ago with 3 players and it was an absolute blast. If they have that with on-line play, they might actually have a winner.
It would also make it cheaper and easier to do a sequel to Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe