Midway Layoff Staff, Cancel Games

Midway are a company on the edge of financial ruin with spiraling debts and no real income with which to pay them. As a result Midway today announced that they have made 180 members of it's workforce redundant, that may not seem a lot but that accounts for over a quarter of their workforce. Midway have also closed their Austin Studio and have made cuts in both their Chicago and San Diego offices.

As well as losing a quarter of the workforce Midway have also announced that they will be canceling several unannounced games that were due for release in 2010 and 2011, however it is stated these cuts are not to any major projects that they had planned.

Matt Booty, President and CEO of Midway had this to say,

"The cost-reduction measures are vital for us to rationalize our operations and provide the resources necessary for our core properties to succeed."

"These initiatives, along with the other steps we have taken this year, are a response to the specific challenges we are facing at Midway, many of which have been amplified by the current economic conditions."

To add to their money problems as a result of laying off the 180 members of staff Midway will incur a loss of $1.6 million in redundancy package deals.

It is indeed a bad time for Midway. Can they survive this recession?

Wheelman New Screens & Videos

Midway have just released some new in game trailers and screenshots of their upcoming game Wheelman starring Vin Diesel.

The game is set for release on Xbox 360 February 2009.

Wheelman Trailers

Wheelman Screenshots

Need For Speed Might Be Over?

Due to the failing economy many business are having to make cuts and sadly people will lose jobs. This is also true of games companies such as Midway being very close to administration. The next to be hit are the untouchables EA. As a result of the declining economy they have announced that they will be cutting back on expenditure, and news is spreading across the net that it will be EA's Black Box division that get the cut.

Sadly this is the division that makes the Need For Speed titles so if this goes down the titles go with it. Due to reports of falling sales in NFS: Undercover and it not even making the top 20 in the NPD sales for November, there is also information that all future NFS projects have been canceled. EA spokesman Colin Macrae had this to say,

“These are challenging times, they’re uncertain times for our industry and across the board…We continue to be firmly rooted in Vancouver.”

Vancouver is where EA's Black Box division is located.

Could i be the end stay tuned for updates...

Gamespot - Wheelman Hands On

Gamespot have got their hands on Vin Diesel's newest action starring game known as Wheelman. The game is currently in development by Midway who are struggling with debts at the moment, so this may have to be their savior game. Anyway check out their preview and judge for yourself.

Gamespot Wheelman Hands On