and carnivals see midway fair . midway games inc. final midway logo 1997 2009 former type public industry interactive entertainment fate bankruptcy successor netherrealm studios founded 1988 ; 28 years ago 1988 1 defunct 2010 headquarters chicago illinois u.s. products gauntlet mortal kombat nba jam nfl blitz blitz the league rampage rush series spy hunter cruis n series revenue us 219.6 million fy 2008 2 website archived official website midway games was an american video game developer and publisher . its titles included mortal kombat ms. pac man spy hunter tron rampage the cruis n series nfl blitz and nba jam . midway also acquired the rights to video games that were originally developed by williams electronics and atari games such as defender joust robotron 2084 gauntlet and the rush series . the company s predecessor midway manufacturing was founded in 1958 as an amusement game manufacturer . in 1973 it moved into the interactive entertainment industry developing and publishing arcade video games . the company scored its first mainstream hit with the u.s. distribution of space invaders in 1978 . midway was purchased and re incorporated in 1988 by wms industries inc. after years as a leader in the arcade segment midway moved into the growing home video game market beginning in 1996 the same year that it made its initial public offering of stock . in 1998 wms spun off its remaining shares of midway . midway was ranked the fourth largest selling video game publisher in 2000 . 3 after 2000 midway continued to develop and publish video games for home and handheld video game machines but it experienced large annual net losses and engaged in a series of stock and debt offerings and other financings and borrowings . sumner redstone the head of viacom cbs corporation increased his stake in midway from about 15 % in 1998 to about 87 % by the end of 2007 . 4 in december 2008 redstone sold all his stock and 70 million of midway debt to mark thomas a private investor for 100 000 . 5 in february 2009 midway games filed in delaware for bankruptcy . 6 warner bros. purchased most of midway s assets including mortal kombat and midway settled with mark thomas to relinquish his midway stock and debt . 7 8 the u.s. district court in chicago dismissed a lawsuit alleging that former officers of midway misled shareholders while selling their own stock . 9 in 2010 the bankruptcy court dismissed claims against redstone concerning his sale of the company to thomas and approved midway s plan of liquidation . 10 midway terminated the public registration of its securities in june 2010 . 11 in march 2011 the court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the sale of assets to warner . as of 2016 a liquidating trust continues to collect and distribute any proceeds and other assets to midway s remaining creditors and pursues avoidance actions on behalf of creditors . contents 1 history 1.1 arcade games 1.2 spin off and home video game focus 1.3 late 2000s and bankruptcy filing 1.4 2009 sales of assets 1.5 lawsuits and liquidation 2 subsidiaries and studios 2.1 publishing and distribution 2.2 studios 3 list of arcade games developed or licensed 3.1 video games 3.2 pinball 4 selected console and pc games developed or licensed by midway 5 references 6 external links history edit arcade games edit midway mfg. co. began in 1958 as an independent manufacturer of amusement equipment . it was purchased by bally in 1969 . bally at that time was a leader in the manufacture of slot machines . 12 after some years making mechanical arcade games such as puck bowling and simulated western shoot out midway became in 1973 an early american maker of arcade video games . throughout the 1970s midway had a close alliance with japanese video game publisher taito with both companies regularly 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 eventually renamed bally astrocade . this was the only home game system ever to be developed by the company and was discontinued in 1985 . 12 meanwhile midway s breakthrough success came in 1978 with the licensing and distribution of taito s seminal arcade game space invaders in america . 12 this was followed by midway s licensing and distributing the hit u.s. version of namco s pac man in 1980 and its unauthorized sequel ms. pac man in 1981 . 13 14 also in 1982 bally merged its pinball division with midway to form the bally midway manufacturing division . three games released that year including 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 united states . the bally midway division of bally was purchased and reincorporated in 1988 by the arcade and pinball game company williams electronics games through its holding company wms industries inc. midway moved its headquarters from franklin park illinois to williams then headquarters in chicago and wms reincorporated midway as a delaware corporation . although wms retained many of midway s r & d employees only two game designers were retained rampage designers brian colin and jeff nauman . wms 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 machines under the bally brand . in 1991 however midway absorbed williams video game division and started making arcade games under its own name again without the bally part . in 1992 the company s the addams family machine became the best selling pinball game of all time . 12 in 1996 wms purchased time warner interactive which included atari games a part of the former giant atari inc. . also in 1996 midway changed its original corporate name midway manufacturing 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 named midway home entertainment . 15 spin off and home video game focus edit in 1996 wms made a public offering of midway stock and at the same time wms transferred its video game copyrights and trademarks including defender robotron 2084 and joust to midway . 12 in 1998 wms spun off its remaining 86.8 % interest in midway to the wms shareholders making midway an independent entity for the first time in almost 30 years . 16 midway kept atari games as a wholly owned subsidiary as part of this spin off . midway retained or shared some of the wms executive staff and used some common facilities with wms for a few more years . over several years midway gradually terminated all material agreements and executive overlap with wms and had a declining number of common members of its board of directors until it shared only one with its former parent company . by 1999 midway left the pinball industry it had earlier transferred most of its pinball assets to wms in 1996 in exchange for video game assets of wms to concentrate on video games . in january 2000 midway changed the name of its atari games subsidiary to midway games west to avoid confusion with the other atari company then owned by hasbro interactive . in june 2001 midway closed its arcade division due to financial losses . in february 2003 midway shut down midway games west ending what was left of the original atari . after losing money each year since 2000 midway s losses accelerated in 2003 as it lost 115 million on sales of about 93 million . 17 despite these losses the company was able to finance its business with stock and debt offerings and various credit arrangements . in 2003 sumner redstone a significant minority shareholder since the company s spinoff began to increase his stake in the company and soon owned 80 % of the stock . 18 in 2004 in an effort to expand its market share midway began a purchasing spree of independent video game development studios to strengthen its product development teams 19 in april 2004 midway acquired surreal software of seattle washington . in october 2004 it acquired inevitable entertainment of austin texas which became midway austin . in december 2004 it acquired paradox development of moorpark california . on august 4 2005 midway acquired privately held australian developer ratbag games . the studio was renamed midway studios australia . four months later on december 13 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 december 15 the studio was closed and their adelaide premises emptied . during 2004 and 2005 midway lost 20 million on sales of 162 million and 112 million on sales of 150 million respectively . 17 redstone voted his shares to elect his daughter shari redstone to midway s board of directors and later as the chair of the board . 17 midway was ranked as the 4 video game publisher by sales in 2000 . 3 it was ranked as the 19 video game publisher in 2005 and had fallen to 20 in 2006 according to the magazine game developer . 20 late 2000s and bankruptcy filing edit in 2006 and 2007 midway lost a further 77 million on sales of 166 million and 100 million on sales of 157 million respectively . it continued to finance its business with debt offerings and other credit arrangements . 17 as of 2007 midway games was engaged in a legal battle with mindshadow entertainment for the psi ops video game rights . mindshadow alleged that midway copied psi ops s story from a screenplay written and owned by their client . on december 2 2008 judge florence marie cooper of the united states district court for the central district of california issued a ruling granting summary judgment on all counts in midway s favor . judge cooper found no evidence of copyright infringement . 21 on march 6 2007 midway reported that it had entered into a new 90m credit agreement with national amusements a company controlled by sumner redstone . 17 midway s ceo david zucker stated that the introduction of unreal tournament 3 and the company s growing success in mass market games were setting it up for a significant 2008 . 22 on march 21 2008 zucker resigned as ceo . he was the third executive to resign from the company in three months . succeeding zucker as ceo was former senior vice president matt booty . 23 during the summer of 2008 in an effort to trim costs midway closed its los angeles and austin studios . 24 these closures left midway with four studios in chicago seattle san diego and newcastle england . in november 2008 midway reported that its cash and other resources may not be adequate to fund ... working capital requirements and that it would need to initiate cost cutting measures or seek additional liquidity sources . 25 on november 20 2008 midway retained lazard to assist it in the evaluation of strategic and financial alternatives . 26 the next day midway received a nyse delisting notice after its stock s price fell below one dollar . 27 on december 2 2008 sumner redstone sold his 87 percent stake in midway games to mark thomas a private investor through his company mt acquisition holdings llc . 24 thomas s company paid approximately 100 000 or 0.0012 per share . thomas also received 70 million