Topic: Midway Games in Dire Straits

[D_Average]

Just played the Arcade port of MK 2 on the PS3 yesterday, oh the memories, oh what could have been!

[KDR_11k]

Less room for error, higher investment, lower gain, seems like a terrible idea but maybe that's just me.

Cover their asses with easy profits? Usually easy profits aren't for covering your ass, they're for making a profit. In a business there aren't profit projects and "fun projects", everything's supposed to make a profit. Realistically Midway should have known that their games wouldn't be praised as GOTYs and wouldn't warrant these budgets but eh, if they had a good business sense they wouldn't make headlines for being de-listed.

Besides, what were the Game Party games if not easy profits?

[Chozo Ghost]

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, because the Wii is cheaper to develop for and has an installed base at least twice as high as the competitors. Whether the games are hardcore or softcore, the Wii makes perfect sense for a company in bad financial shape.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

The Wii helped out Majesco.

[Ian Sane]

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. 

[Toruresu]

Ouch!

[NWR_Lindy]

Wow, Ian wins the thread.

Like I said, the high-risk development isn't a bad business move if you have the money to absorb loss (like Sony, MS, Capcom, Konami, Squeenix, EA, etc.) and do your homework, but if you're just out there winging it...good luck.  In that case you're better off developing for the iPhone.

[KDR_11k]

High risk is only worth it if the reward is similarily large and there's no lower risk approach with a similar reward. A sane approach is to pick the option where chance of success * expected gain (profit/cost) is maximal, from what I see a "casual" game is more likely to make money than a big game and both have a chance of striking it really big (multi-million seller).

[GoldenPhoenix]

Well the biggest test will be Monster Hunter 3, if and when it comes out in the US. That is a bigger budget game and Capcom sounds like they really want to market it.

[Deguello]

I laugh at people suggested Midway should have made "casual" games to "cover their asses."  If Nintendo makes about six "casual" games and gets harangued for "going casual" and "abandoning the hardcore," despite making a gajillion of those games, what would people think of Midway making a group of "casual games" to cover their losses on one uber mega hardcore fighting game?  UBISoft's reputation is already in the gutter because they decided to make 500 garbage games they call "casual" for the Wii and DS in order to finance a few Super Mega Hardcore games on 360 and Ps3, a strategy that really doesn't seem to be working out too well.  This also plays on the stereotype that just about anything labeled "casual" will sell on the Wii, which the facts just don't support.  The reason they make money on these garbage games is because they have shoestring budgets and sell about 500 copies each, sometimes more.

There is only so much you can blame on management, the rest is simply that they failed to recognize where the majority market is and bought into internet forum hype.  In 2005, everybody was throwing their hands up in the air as to how the Unreal 3 Engine was going to be the future of games and everybody who was anybody was licensing it.  Apparently this idea hasn't panned out well for many companies (Epic made out pretty well, selling this snake-oil), causing Silicon Knights much frustration and criticism and here Midway may even die because of it.  We can't fault management for doing exactly what was demanded of them by their visible consumers at the time.

EDIT:

Yes I think we can all agree that the best place to sell crap games is on the Wii.

The best place you can sell awful games is always the market leader.  You could say this about the PS2, the PS1, the DS.  Of course, you'd have to have your head examined too, mainly because this is a common troll trope on Gamefaqs, who are understandably aged 13-15 or scarily aged 23-35.

[KDR_11k]

As long as crappy shovelware keeps making a profit there's no real reason to stop making it (of course scaling the production up probably wouldn't work well but hey,"free" money!), might want to fork your brand to make sure you don't get notorious as a crap pusher though.

Then again I wonder if crappy shovelware really sells better on the Wii than other consoles...

[Urkel]

I don't think shovelware sells particularly well on Wii.

Ubisoft made most of its profit off of DS games last quarter, and the least off of Wii. I think the reason shovelware is a less effective approach on Wii is because the Wii is a system parents will actually want to play with their kids.

With the DS, most parents will just pick up any random game for their kids just to shut them up while they're grocery shopping or in the car. On the Wii, most parents will actually be playing this game with their kids, so it matters to them if the game is good or not. Word of mouth is what sells games on Wii, hence games like Mario Kart selling and selling and selling.

Shovelware is still profitable, but just barely. It certainly wont cover the losses if your big budget game bombs.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Grandmama won't play no crap games, fo sho.

[Luigi Dude]

Then again I wonder if crappy shovelware really sells better on the Wii than other consoles...

It doesn't, the whole shovelware sells on the Wii and only the Wii is a myth started by the usual idiots in the gaming media who are the same ones that say Nintendo is trying to destroy hardcore gaming.

The ratio of good to bad games selling is about the same on all 3 systems, it's just the videogame media doesn't report on them, because the bad games on the 360/PS3 that sell are usually games like shooters, while on the Wii the bad games are things like mini game collections.  So when a crappy Halo clone or GTA clone sells well on the 360, nobody cares.  But when a crappy Wii Sports clone sells well, everyone goes crazy and starts writing articles about how the Wii is destroying gaming.

[ThePerm]

can't Midway just make a great game and market it as shovelware

[BeautifulShy]

More bad
 news for Midway
Well it looks like Sumner Redstone doesn't like where Midway is heading with his money so he is selling his stake for 100,000.

[Plugabugz]

Shovelware is still profitable, but just barely. It certainly wont cover the losses if your big budget game bombs.

So maybe they should focus their attention on whats easiest. Make money on what costs the least, and will produce the most returns. Even if its Midway Sports, and can stand against Wii Sports then i'd be all for it.

[Chozo Ghost]

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.

[GoldenPhoenix]

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.

Wasn't that Rare who did Joust? (I may be wrong)

[BeautifulShy]

Joust was made by Midway GP.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Gauntlet Legends Neo for Wii plz

[vudu]

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.

Did you just suggest Midway make another Mortal Kombat Mythologies?  What is wrong with you?

[oohhboy]

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.

[ThePerm]

100,000 for the rights to mortal kombat...sold! I'd automatically be like


"today with the new change in management we will be switching to a one console exclusive strategy. Today we will be making our games exclusively on Wii. I expect the quality to increase 10 fold as we won't have all our resources squandered by developing multiconsole, our first game to be developed since the changeover will be a new Gauntlet game designed for virtual console with online multiplayer in mind. Think castle crashers meets gauntlet. We will also release a new mortal kombat game with classic 2d mechanics and will take the current 3d mortal kombat series and rebrand it, i think gamers will enjoy a new set of characters and a new storyline"

I haven't bought a new mk game since mk4, which to me was the pinnacle of the classic gameplay, it was just like its sprite cousins. Except it was fast and furious.

That being said I actually dug the newer mk games, but not enough to justify their purchase. I did buy Soul Calibur 1 2 and 4 though which means that fans are perfectly willing to trade in for new characters. If i were to take the 3d mechanics of the 3d mortal kombat as i'd redesign the game so that it appeals to more people. Kung Fu masters would be graceful, spies would have good stories. i'd also try some licensing ploy like put Sam Fisher in the game. If the game tanks it doesn't hurt UbiSoft.

I like the one console strategy, for the most part Acclaim spent most of its resources making games for n64 during that era. It did however have a few ports, but it spent more time on turok than it did on other franchises. The series was popular for that audience and they did well. When they went multi console for Turok they didn't make an AAA product and sales suffered and they suffered and went out of business. It doesn't seem to be advantageous at all to be multi console unless you sale nothing but sports games, or have the capacity to make AAA titles on more than one console, especially if your competing with ubisoft. Although, they are starting to tank too, or so I've heard.

Theres a huge group of people who love classic mk, and i think marketing to nostalgia is a great idea. Take an existing classic and add to it Megaman 9 style.
Mortal Kombat is a great example because they used live actors, and the game was tacky. If tacky was turned into a fine art that would be a new classic mortal kombat game.

if a game was like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbeXI45wNyQ&feature=related
i'd buy it

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

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's like WoW but good on any given minute.  Actually, WoW is like Gauntlet, just with less funs per second.