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Midway LA Impact!ed by closure

TNA Wrestling studio's operations to be merged with publisher's San Diego development house; majority of employees offered transfers.

The studio developing Midway's new TNA iMPACT! game is apparently down for the count. The publisher today announced that it is folding its Los Angeles development house into its existing San Diego operations.

Midway said in a statement that the entire TNA team is being offered the option of transferring to the new location. The majority of employees in the Moorpark, California-based studio will be given the chance to join the San Diego team, the publisher said.

The reason given for the merger was to make it easier for the TNA team to work with the San Diego-based third-party production, licensing, and quality assurance teams. The move should also "further leverage synergies with Midway's other development studios in Chicago, Austin, Seattle, and Newcastle, UK," the publisher said.

A Midway representative told GameSpot the move won't impact iMPACT's release date.

"The game is going through final testing now and is still scheduled for September," the representative said. "This studio move will help ensure the long term success of the TNA iMPACT! franchise."

Midway's LA outfit is best known for the successful action adaptation of the Mortal Kombat fighting franchise, Shaolin Monks. Prior to being purchased by Midway, the studio was Paradox Development, and created the Backyard Wrestling series of games.

The San Diego studio produced Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, the Ready 2 Rumble series, and Freaky Flyers before reports of its closure surfaced in late 2005. However, weeks later, Midway revealed the studio was alive and working on Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War.

52 Comments

  • MadGamer132

    Posted Jul 25, 2008 10:00 am GMT

    ouch! at least everything is okay liked planned.

  • QuagmireJ

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 7:11 am GMT

    WWE was the bomb back in the day, with the Rock and Stone Cold, etc.
    Now it has crappy characters and even crappier storylines. IMO TNA and WWE bl0w.

  • LazyPenguin1989

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 5:28 am GMT

    Well at least the game is still on for finishing i want to play this.

  • TheBuck27

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 5:07 am GMT

    So let me get this straight, the studio responsible for Backyard Wrestling, is merging with the studio responsible for Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows? As a paraphrase of what the Angry Video Game Nerd might say, that's like chucking up on a pile of, feces.

    But it should still be a good game. Kinda. Sorta. Maybe. Right??? Ehh who am I kidding?

  • Colsworl

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 5:03 am GMT

    To Alpha gamer:

    This is the line-up to tonights edition of iMPACT!

    Johnny Devine vs. Consequences Creed and Eric Young

    - Matt Morgan vs. Trevor Chavis

    - Strap Match: The Motor City Machineguns (Sabin and Shelley) vs. Beer Money (Storm and Roode) w/Miss Jackie

    - TNA Knockouts Title Match: Taylor Wilde © vs. Velvet Sky

    - TNA X-Division Title Match: Petey Williams © vs. "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal

    - Tag Team Tables Elimination Match: AJ Styles, Christian Cage and Rhino vs. Kurt Angle and Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon)

    As you can see, only one match features former WWE stars and even then that will be a 5 table elimination match featuring some of WWE's best sars and AJ Styles of course.

    Lots of WWE fans are missing out on some great entertainment, shame.

    Edit: I forgot Morgan was in WWE before but WWE dropped the ball with him.

  • Eternal_Insane

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 1:41 am GMT

    Its not just THQ that was involved with the old WWF N 64 wrestling games, it was Yukes, Yukes is the people who gave us the options of multiple attires, and if that wasn't enough we could change the wrestlers hair, and faces, and costumes, and not to mention the costume colors, we want this back!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • AlphaGamer469

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 10:17 pm GMT

    TNA watchable? That's a joke, right? All you get is ex-WWE wrestlers whining about Vince, has beens trying to act cool and rejects that will just end up being ECW mid carders when they finally realize how much they have wasted there careers away. Not to mention Tenay and that other baffoon are the worst commentaters in wrestling. Heck , they make Tony Shivone seem like Gordon Solie. TNA is the WWE's Single A farm club

  • Shtinky

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 9:32 pm GMT

    joshua6775 nothing says excitement like playing as a 67 year old Sting and his merry band of C-list wrestlers. Pass.

    at least TNA is in a much better state than WWE. TNA is still watchable, unlike WWE.

  • Aries03

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 5:51 pm GMT

    who care's,really....?

  • joshua6775

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 4:00 pm GMT

    nothing says excitement like playing as a 67 year old Sting and his merry band of C-list wrestlers. Pass.

  • Bandit_Haze

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 12:35 pm GMT

    to Henninger

    THQ are also the same people who haven't made a good wrestling game since the N64 days.. like you say they "had" the formula, as much as i'd hate to say it, but it seems they've miss placed it somewhere.. maybe midway can do better

  • VenomRitual

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 11:43 am GMT

    "The reason given for the merger was to make it easier for the TNA team to work with the San Diego-based third-party production, licensing, and quality assurance teams"

    all the better than.

  • Setsuka13

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 11:29 am GMT

    Sounds like a great idea to me. The game could even get a few improvements as well. I suppose we will see.

  • Zoomer30

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 11:13 am GMT

    No Vince merged raw and smackdown into the Indy Racing Legue, so now they will be having live matches on the track durting the Indy 500

  • Henninger

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 10:01 am GMT

    I personally dont care about the game. wrestling games haven't been good since the N64 days so im not gonna buy or rent it. & on top of that THQ isn't making this game so who cares. If u don't know, THQ is the publisher that made those old N64 games. They had the formula with what worked 4 a wrestling game & thats what i wanna play.

  • necronaux

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 9:26 am GMT

    TNA is still around? I thought Vince bought/merged everything into raw & smackdown.

  • jtthegame316

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 9:08 am GMT

    Candyman90 come on EA they are dreadful most of the time they make the odd good game here and there but it is mostly crap that comes from them. plus most the games that are good from ea are only published by them and not made by them. anyway i look forward to tna impact cause they messed up SVR 2008. plus tna is better than wwe anyway.

  • Irve

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 9:06 am GMT

    AlphaGamer469 :
    ok .... your entitled to your opinion
    the difference is there aren't many people that have jumped from TNA to the WWF ... who have you got Monty Brown ?
    the big names in TNA are still there

  • Candyman90

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 8:17 am GMT

    #1, if anything, i think TNA should've chosen EA as the company to do the game.
    #2, People, it's SAMOA JOE! if you're gonna make fun of him, spell the country's name right.

  • ps3thabest

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 7:50 am GMT

    im gonna get this game support little companys

  • Hedfix

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 4:51 am GMT

    "Pretty soon, all we will have to chose from is Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, Activizzard, and "EA-Everything else"...."

    Yeah because studios never close/merge having finished work on a title. You clearly have no clue about the development process.

  • Lauryn2000

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 4:21 am GMT

    TNA ImPact....didn't even know they had a wrestling game...

  • AlphaGamer469

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 4:02 am GMT

    IRVE I understaand the industry far more then you could hope. Don't preach to me about the worth ethics of Joke or AJ it is totally immaterial because most of the WWE roster totally outclasses both of them and X division? It's the most over rated apect in TNA. Face reality Beth Phoenix would dominate the whole TNA roster and just remember how many TNA jumpers are now WWE main eventers, yet how many ex WWE midcarders are now TNA main eventers. TNA just doesn't come close to comparing against the WWE.

  • Irve

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 3:23 am GMT

    i doubt this game will turn out to be very good.
    but who knows .. maybe .. and if they get enough time maybe it will get better

  • Irve

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 3:22 am GMT

    AlphaGamer469 :
    my word .. it sounds like you think wrestling is real !
    if your a wrestling fan then you should know that a wrestler's merit is based on the moveset they perform , they way they take a bump , the way they sell an opponent's move , their work rate and their mic work. I'm trying to think of people on the WWF roster that out class Joe or AJ ... or pretty much anyone in the X division !
    either way feel free to watch John Cena win a 10 on 1 match for the 40th time.

  • tawagivercetti

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 3:08 am GMT

    sux to be you nerd

  • Richmaester6907

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 2:34 am GMT

    A wrestling game being delayed so what they are never any good!!!

  • DevilD2005

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 11:34 pm GMT

    This scares me for the reason that the unfinished product is being exposed to other corporate higherups before launch. Just because they say they wont change deadline, does not mean necessarily that newer ideas may be attempted to be implemented.

  • AlphaGamer469

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 9:29 pm GMT

    That's what happens when you associate yourself with the minor leagues of wrestling. Somoa Jo(k)e couldn't handle ANY WWE champ...

  • cooldude03

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 9:20 pm GMT

    I can't wait to play this game. I hope it's better than actual TNA: Impact. At least we'll finally get a chace to play Somoa Joe and AJ Styles in a video game. I can't wait to is how the match playout like Ultimate X, that match seems like it would be difficult to adapt to gaming.

  • Viral-venom13

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 8:42 pm GMT

    Well the artists are being given a choice and besides the more talented people you have working one 1 big project the more better the chances are for the final product to be a very good outcome!!

  • omrikk87

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 8:38 pm GMT

    if this will affect the release date by one day i will be pissed,they had more delays than duke nukem.

  • combatsoldier

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 8:31 pm GMT

    email2003 Boy I hope this game knocks WWE SvR out of buisness. SvR has been old, awful, and just the same game every year like Madden.

    I respect your comment and opinion however I strongly disagree. The last edition was not the best because it was the transition year into this years revolutionary title. Also, the wwe board is also in the process of trying to change game developers because they dont like how the game is going. I personally love the games.

    Onto this topic. This game looks pretty solid and looks like its going to offer some solid gameplay. I think im going to check it out.

  • BlackSamvara

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 8:03 pm GMT

    It must be a difficult choice to have to leave you're friends (and potentially you're family) to move to a new location. It's true, At least they were given the opportunity to continue working for the company rather than just being laid off. I hope that everything goes good for the employees, but if Backyard Wrestling is any indication, TNA isn't going to be that great. I enjoy TNA, So long as they make this game BETTER than Backyard Wrestling everything will be fine.. And after all, That shouldn't be too hard to do right?

  • email2003

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 7:09 pm GMT

    Boy I hope this game knocks WWE SvR out of buisness. SvR has been old, awful, and just the same game every year like Madden.

  • KarthikKane

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 6:30 pm GMT

    The same studio that handled Rise & Fall?! TNA Impact fans are in for a rough ride. I wish you good luck.

  • NA3D

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 5:17 pm GMT

    Wellfed - that is an extremely true point you have. the cost of living is definitely high, as well as the cost of insurance...

  • Wellfedmonkey

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 5:02 pm GMT

    Cost of living in LA is 5-6 x's higher than SD. Good move.

  • imperial_agent

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 3:54 pm GMT

    thank goodness they didn't lose their jobs. but i wouldn't want to move from Los Angeles to San Diego. LA is way more fun than SD!

  • OO7OO7

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 2:24 pm GMT

    Meh, Slow news week.

  • Colsworl

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 1:48 pm GMT

    Well I hope this doesn't effect the quality of the game in a bad way. I really want this game to be good for the reason that I like TNA and that I'm getting tired of the same old, same old from the WWE games.

  • NA3D

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 1:32 pm GMT

    Good for them for streamlining their production. Working at a company that has done that, it makes a huge difference not having to communicate by phone or email, and instead be able to have a whiteboard to actually communicate more clearly. This may even improve title qualities as well as improve production time.

    What the heck has happened to this company over the years. I forgot they even existed.

  • Real720

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 1:31 pm GMT

    I seriously couldn't care less....

  • RBdrmmr02

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 1:17 pm GMT

    Meh..so what i guess. at least the game release has not been affected,so its all good.

  • Cheech_Chong

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 12:23 pm GMT

    man i thought this was about midnight club la

  • Big_Evil666

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 12:22 pm GMT

    At least the game is still due out

  • Serbine

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 12:10 pm GMT

    That sad to hear but hopefully every employee will be cover.

  • halomonkey1_3_5

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 12:09 pm GMT

    well as long as it doesn't hurt the game i could care less....

  • snake289

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 11:09 am GMT

    Ah well at least its not EA.

  • TheArcade

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 11:08 am GMT

    Nice touch Chicken Hounk.

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