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Midway dancing over Happy Feet

By Tim Surette, GameSpotPosted Jan 11, 2007 2:56 pm PT

Mortal Kombat publisher basks in success of family-friendly, multiplatform game; 1.8 million copies of movie-based game shipped worldwide.

If Hollywood has taught us anything in the past few years, it is that penguins aren't only oh-so adorable, they are also big box-office draws that can rake in the cash for film studios. According to data from IMDB.com, the $8 million March of the Penguins has pulled in more than $77 million in the US, and the $85 million Happy Feet has rung up more than $326 million around the world, $178 million of that coming domestically.

CHA-CHING!

Midway Games is also getting a piece of the penguin pie, thanks to their game adaptation of Happy Feet. The publisher today did a little toe-tapping of its own and revealed that it has shipped more than 1.8 million copies of the game worldwide. The game was released in mid-November on the PlayStation 2, Wii, GameCube, DS, Game Boy Advance, and PC.

The Chicago-based publisher seems to be riding a string of success. Earlier this week, the company announced that it had shipped more than 1 million copies of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, which was released in October.

The news is good for Midway, which is coming off a quarter which saw it lose $22 million, a slight improvement over the same period the previous year.

For more information on Happy Feet, read GameSpot's previous coverage.

80 Comments

  • DSfanatic5

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 3:21 pm PT

    I feel sorry for kids whose parents will only let them play lame games like Happy Feet. When that kid goes to school, and other kids are talking about Metroid and Castlevania, he has a choice:

    He can either keep his mouth shut, or talk about Happy Feet. It reminds me of South Park when Butters was playing Hello-Kitty Island, while the other kids were playing World of Warcraft.

  • fartys

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 7:42 am PT

    i cant believe people will pay money for a game in which the main character is a penguin that loves to dance! is the world getting dumber or just stupider?

  • zeldredz

    Posted Jan 14, 2007 11:50 pm PT

    TheReproducer
    This goes to show that even if you put a piece of turd in a DVD game case, it'll still sell by the millions if it has the right brand name. DO you like the Wiggles? All the kids who got the happy feet game do and just because you dont like it doesnt mean its not good for kids

  • eckertt001

    Posted Jan 14, 2007 11:47 pm PT

    Maybe because there were so many people forced to buy this game in a bundle? naaaa cant be...

  • AFWorm

    Posted Jan 14, 2007 7:41 pm PT

    I just can't believe the game would do so well! I guess the younger group is sold on the movie.

  • littlewiz77

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 7:16 pm PT

    owls>>>>penguins

  • TheReproducer

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 6:20 pm PT

    This goes to show that even if you put a piece of turd in a DVD game case, it'll still sell by the millions if it has the right brand name.

  • heavy_rocker29

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 4:40 pm PT

    child exploitation such as this makes me sick tell the children of the world to stay away from the cute fuzzy cartoon characters of crappy games!!!

  • Limonadi

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 12:00 pm PT

    kids

  • MissAndDie96

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 11:14 am PT

    What kills me is this game sold more than EBA, when Happy Feet's gameplay is just a terrible rip off of EBA's gameplay.

  • waraga

    Posted Jan 13, 2007 12:49 am PT

    how in the hell did a 3.9 ranking from gamespot make such aprofit well some reviews from game spot could be wrong

  • wenbin09

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 10:23 pm PT

    that's amusing!

  • nmandude

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 10:12 pm PT

    How the hell did a game with a 3.9 from Gamespot sell 1.8 MILLION copies? I though it would sell horribly.

  • Death_Masta187

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 7:40 pm PT

    Midway Start supporting Nintendo's Virtual Console... I need me some Mortal Kombat 2 and 3 for SNES already....

  • Ohio_Sux

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 7:04 pm PT

    Wheres NFL Blitz?!?!?!?!?!

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 2:47 pm PT

    I think thats better than cars...well if midway gets money perhaps they can put out another blitz

  • icym

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 11:00 am PT

    well, when your name and sales had hit rock bottom, where can you go but up?

  • theKSMM

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 8:18 am PT

    Shame that it took one of their worst titles to help boost their abysmal bottom line. Just goes to show that there's not nearly as much money to be made catering to the hardcore as their is in licensing for the mainstream.

  • ObiKKa

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 7:51 am PT

    F*cking what?! This is such an atrocious game looking by the reviews.

    rasstarman
    "It sells well because most people don't know it's a horrible game."

    No, it's because stupid people & kids are familiar with this title after watching the movie.

    LordAndrew
    "Worst Game Everyone Played nominee for 2007. Holy crap. At least Midway's making money."

    No, bugger, it's too late. The title was released in November last year. It cannot go into the 2007's list. At least they awarded the dubious honour to Jaws. But even Happy Feet would have beaten that one as this one's sold 1.8 million units compared to that game's 250,000 units, or whatever!

  • fahad2mail

    Posted Jan 12, 2007 7:22 am PT

    hmm. great.

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