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Midway beats sales projection, still loses money

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted May 5, 2008 3:46 pm PT

First quarterly report for Chicago-based publisher's new interim president and CEO continues string of losing quarters.

Midway interim president and CEO Matthew Booty was on the job for less than two weeks of the publisher's first fiscal quarter ended March 31, so it should come as little surprise that the publisher's quarterly financial report details a ship not yet righted. The company today released its preliminary results for the first three months of the year, showing better sales than last year's first quarter, but also deeper losses.

Despite a lack of major North American releases, Midway's net revenues for the first quarter totaled $29.9 million, up from $11.1 million for the opening three months of 2007. However, the publisher reported losses of $34 million for the quarter, versus $19.8 million for the same stretch of time last year. The last time the publisher reported a net income for a quarter was the holiday quarter of 2004, when the bottom line was bolstered by the original NBA Ballers, Midway Arcade Treasures, and Mortal Kombat: Deception.

The company's releases for the first quarter of 2008 included a downloadable Stranglehold expansion and European launches of Unreal Tournament III, BlackSite: Area 51, Game Party, Cruis'n, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and the PC edition of Hour of Victory. Last year, the company had no new releases in the first quarter, but reported strong continued sales from the previous holiday quarter's hits like Happy Feet and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.

Looking forward to results from the current quarter, Midway expects to post revenues of $18 million with a net loss of approximately $.38 per share (the company's first quarter loss came out to $.37 per basic and diluted share). The company's only release of note for the quarter is NBA Ballers: Chosen One, which has been released worldwide on the Xbox 360 and in North America for the PlayStation 3.

67 Comments

  • thug_angel123

    Posted May 7, 2008 4:28 pm PT

    hour of victory was a big mess,big mess midway...

  • iiplayboy

    Posted May 7, 2008 3:04 pm PT

    Midway is an old skool company i remember them for their Mortal Combat series, but hopefully URT 3 and This is Vegas will help boost their revenue..

  • peon_frenzy

    Posted May 7, 2008 1:02 pm PT

    Midway is just a bad company all around. In Chicago they hire interns at $10/hr and force them to work crazy hours and do the same work as salaried artists. Instead of trying to nurture them and help them become better artists, the mentality at Midway is "more cheap labor." If they keep operating that way it will eventually go under

  • Sins-of-Mosin

    Posted May 7, 2008 11:19 am PT

    MaximumD - Plent of piracy on the consoles. The difference is that it usually takes a adult to play a PC game while there are plenty of kiddes for the consoles.

    I do agree that the high costs of hardware and the games themselves are hurting the industry. Cry all you want about piracy but it's corp greed thats driving up the costs.

  • nate1222

    Posted May 7, 2008 4:22 am PT

    There's something you uber-geeks need to bare in mind: while "we" go to sites like GS and rant and rave about games, the average person could really give a ****. "We" might be willing to spend $400 per console (some of us more than once) and $60 per "game". But most people aren't going to put up with that ****. And the gaming industry has gotten SO EXPENSIVE TO MAINTAIN that it depends increasingly on the "general" population. That same "general" population (you know - most people) will ditch gaming if it gets too damn expensive. I'm a LIFE LONG gamer and I've decided that I'm NOT moving into the 7th gen. Think about that.

  • LindBergh2007

    Posted May 6, 2008 11:00 pm PT

    See even nate1222 agrees with me.

    1984 may repeat itself.

  • JangoWuzHere

    Posted May 6, 2008 3:59 pm PT

    wow thanks maxium break wii and PC owners hearts why don't you you ass

  • ctg867

    Posted May 6, 2008 3:49 pm PT

    UT3 was the only good game out of that bunch. Kinda said IMO. Eidos/SCi, Atari/Infrogames, and Midway need to get together and make one big company.

  • jtthegame316

    Posted May 6, 2008 3:26 pm PT

    MaximumD no wii gamer buys third party games that comment is wrong. resident evil 4 i have wii edition and know of a few people that have it. sonic and mario at the olypics although nintendo characters are in there the game is by sega so technically that is third party dispite sega being allowed by nintendo to use there charaters. so yeah no matter what console you own you will have some games that are third party.

  • nate1222

    Posted May 6, 2008 3:13 pm PT

    I've decided to NOT invest much into the 7th generation (PS3/360) of gaming. I'm actually happy with the 6th gen (PS2/XBox/GC). The high ass development costs, $400 consoles, $60 games and "pandering" concepts - like MK vs DC - are going to cause a major industry crash.

  • enoslives7

    Posted May 6, 2008 2:51 pm PT

    Midway's bread and butter was arcade to home conversions. Now that arcades have died out, they have lost their nitch.

  • MaximumD

    Posted May 6, 2008 2:50 pm PT

    They should just screw PC gamers and drop them. The privacy is bad. Drop Wii games also because no Wii gamers buy 3rd party games. They should just concentrate with a new IP for the PS3/X-BOX 360 and it will sell like hot cakes.

  • bunnyman14

    Posted May 6, 2008 1:55 pm PT

    Did no one catch the irony of my post?

  • krapsrocks

    Posted May 6, 2008 11:22 am PT

    Wow with all of those "great" releases how could they be losing profits? cough......cough.....

  • Hillsy_

    Posted May 6, 2008 9:26 am PT

    I liked Stranglehold the most, but also found no one to play online with. Blacksite Area 51 was okay, nothing new. It did have some good moments. Hour of Victory has to be the worst FPS in the history of game making. Dreadful game. I would prefer to see a Gauntlet game too, but we'll have to see. There is one in the making for the DS though. I hope they turn things around though, never like to see a game company in trouble.

  • speedjunkie4

    Posted May 6, 2008 9:07 am PT

    If Midway wants to stop losing money, stop making crappy games!

  • frankeyser

    Posted May 6, 2008 8:34 am PT

    not many midway games are worth spitting on. every now and then they come up with an ok idea but then they make ten games within a year off of it totaly ruining it.

  • zeldafan1234

    Posted May 6, 2008 8:27 am PT

    midway sucks

  • Nineball2112

    Posted May 6, 2008 8:05 am PT

    You have to admit... Those games that are listed probably don't really do it for most gamers.

    Tremblay343 said: "They're relying too much on older franchises."

    That nails it right there. They really do need to come up with some new ideas.

  • Avenger1324

    Posted May 6, 2008 7:39 am PT

    Given the almost unanimous crticism of Hour of Victory, and the poor reception to Blacksite, it isn't really surprising to see Midway floundering

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