Reports have popped up today that Warner Bros. Entertainment has bid 33 million dollars to purchase Midway Games. The buyout would include Midway, the Mortal Kombat franchise, and the Chicago and Seattle development studios. Midway has been suffering for nearly two years now, having already shutdown several projects and locations, and laying off much of their staff at remaining locations. The deal apparently does not include the TNA Wrestling license, nor two other development studios. There will be an auction before the deal goes through to allow other companies to take a shot, but it’s expected that WB will come out on top.
A sell-out was expected, as it is the only way at this point that the Mortal Kombat franchise and Midway as a whole could avoid a fatality. Time Warner clearly wants a larger stake in the games industry. Their first major step, buying a chunk of Eidos Interactive, was foiled a few months ago when Square Enix decided to buy the company outright. This move would all but assure a sequel to last year’s well-received Mortal Kombat vs. DCUniverse, and possibly see a new internal development point for more of Warner’s many properties to be translated into games.
May 21st, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Didn’t some guy buy controlling interest in the company for like a hundred thousand dollars some months back when the stock was damn near free? Quite a profit.
May 21st, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Heh, does this mean the Mortal Kombatants will also be joining the DCU proper?
May 21st, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Great! Another universe for Didio to screw up!
May 21st, 2009 at 3:40 pm
DC vs. Mortal Kombat vs. Red Circle vs. Milestone vs. Wildstorm vs. Charleton vs. Whiz
May 21st, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I think it would be nice for MK to actually get an ongoing comic. It has a lot of story potential. Plus, we could finally get a full on tie-in comic.
May 21st, 2009 at 4:01 pm
hey, i like the idea of this for many reasons…lol.
May 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Well this was bound to happen, I wonder if the MK team (Boon, Vogel, and co.) are part of the deal, I’m surprised Midway is selling off it’s ip’s and not just being absorbed by Warner completley.
I’d hope with WB getting all the licensing stuff, this could come around with alot of new stuff, comics, potential movie that could actually be good..
*imagines a Snyder directed Mortal Kombat*
*passes out*
May 21st, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I liked MK vs. DCU. I’d like to see a follow up with more characters and a better range of powers/moves.
May 21st, 2009 at 7:08 pm
This is smart and stupid. DC will get the rights to Mortal Kombat . Time Warner will vastly overpay for the bones of this company. WB owned ATARI at one point and then sold it. They will probally do the same here at some point.Are video games going to just stop selling like everything else except for food and Gas?
May 21st, 2009 at 7:19 pm
>Flavio Pedemonti Says:
May 21st, 2009 at 2:31 pm <
You ROCK DUDE! LOL!
May 21st, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Scorpion VS. Rorschach
May 21st, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Actually, this could be cool… bring the MK universe in with the DCU proper, make for some interesting books…
May 21st, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Their origin stories clash a bit. Unless the Presence was the One Being feeding on the energy of the Elder Gods, before they fragmented its consciousness into the various realms using the Kamidogu.
More likely:
A. One of the 52
B. Wildstorm/Vertigo
I’d like one of the 52, so their clash sort of makes sense. Two highly powerful beings in de-stabalized transdimensional traveling openings, being struck at the same time, and the same place (just in different universes).
And we know why you’d like it Palmiotti, lol. You, Justin Gray, and John Vogel can work together to make them fit (or some similar version of them).
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:16 am
I wanna see Midnighter versus Scorpion or Jenny Quarx versus Raiden