Played a few Midways games this weekend and for a good company, why did Midway went Bankrupt?

Hey gamers from all over the world. i was playing Midway games like Hydro Thunder, Psi-Ops: Mindgate Conspiracy, and Mortal Kombat which I find to be very good games. So my question is, what happen to Midway games that made them go out of business? Were they making mediocre games after awhile? I wasn't following their downfall awhile back but for those who love their games, what happened?

Simply put, poor Management & it doesn't matter how much a good company is, poor management can lead a great company into ruins. Midway found out the hard way. They actually had a couple great selling games there towards the end. But even that wasn't enough to save themselves.

Here's the story I read during the video game magazines about the rise & fall of Midway. The problem was that the Management wanted it to fold. It was either restructure and pay off debts or fold and give the Management a healthy severance package. Under the United States law, there was nothing the bankruptcy Judge could do. The Judge condemned them in the briefs but was powerless to fine them or change the terms. There was also a large sale of stock just before the final settlement that looked like a tax write off issue but I'm not sure what was all that about. From the way the Judge handle the situation, there was some Shady stuff going on at the top though.

So it's no wonder Midway fell of the grid so damn fast and & too like their games, Psi-Ops, The Suffering, Mortal Kombat series made by them, & Hydro Thunder arcade were some of the coolest games I like though.

Sadly poor management spy hunter was my favourite midway franchise. Hydro thunder on dreamcast was great as well. We see it all too often companies being mismanaged.

They made subpar games.

Wierd combination of stuff.

Bad testing, maybe they didn't have the founds to polish their games.

Their only flagship was Mortal Kombat and that franchise was a joke the whole time they were owned by Midway.

At the big crisis, between the PS2 and mid PS3 gen, they were one of the casualities, many studio closed or got bought if they had something worth it.

1.Arcades died in US in late 90s which made them lose a lot of money.(Since they were the number 1 western publisher for arcade games. SEGA also lost a lot of money due to the death of arcades in US.)

2.They made some bad games that failed commercially.

3.They were completely mismanaged as a company.

Op, You can also play Stranglehold. That game was made by the Psi Ops team and it was a good game.(Imo one of the last great games of Midway)

Midway is a very average publisher that have poor management

Outside of Mortal Kombat I never really cared all that much about games from Midway myself and even Mortal Kombat was something that I was pretty lukewarm with at the time.

Midway I believe was on a hill, sliding down, due to their choice of partnering.

I loved Mortal Kombat, and still do but what you guys have to understand is that most families in the U.S didn't allow their children to play that video game, yet alone, wouldnt even attempt to buy the video game, "Mortal Kombat"

We are speaking about an era where the Sega Genesis was really popular, and although, Mortal Kombat was available for the original Nintendo console, as well.. I would have to say that the, "Sonic the Hedchog", video game, really had the best impact on families throughout the U.S and judging from my personal experience, even the video game, "Sonic, The Hedchog", had it's religious quirrels and moments where many families with religious backgrounds or beliefs, really misjudged the character called, Sonic and the game itself and also had labeled the video game as demonic, as many families had made the character, Sonic, out to be of this devil or demon, looking entity, who could possibly possess their children's minds through sorcery.

This is why the Midway company had fallen apart, because of their affiliation with these so called, video games. I, myself, absolutely adores, the video games, Mortal Kombat and Sonic The Hedchog and personally, would never misjudge these video games to be of anything outside of my personal fufillment, to which is entirely based upon my enthusiastic views as a video gamer.

Also, surprisingly, I believe, Nintendo could possibly be on that same route, and it wasn't until recently is where I found out that the company called, Nintendo, had initially began their company creating hotels for prostituting women, and I absolutely love the company Nintendo and personally own a original Nintendo console and a original super Nintendo console, as well.

My theory is, how long will the Nintendo company last in the household of U.S families, especially, the religious factor to this theory, of families who infact believe in soul ties and etc or simply just don't want to be affiliated with anything that involves the belated businesses of the Nintendo companys' prostitution scandal.

I love the Suffering, and "The Suffering Ties that Bind" Never really liked the Mortal Kombat franchise to be honest. I am not sure but I think the problem was that their last games like the "West Coast Customs" game, Black Site Area 51 and maybe Stranglehold did not sell that well. So they spent alot of money for these games just to find out they do not sell!

To be honest BlackSite was one of the worst games I ever played.

Mismanagement was a big part of it, but also people just stopped buying their games. They lost fans as they transitioned away from arcade type games into console ones, but then never managed to gain the foothold they needed in the new market. Psy-ops, The Suffering, Overkill, and Stranglehold were all pretty good but they bombed at retail. The only thing that sold consistently was Mortal Kombat, but it wasn't enough to carry the company.

It's too bad really. They were a relic of a bygone era, but it's an era I greatly enjoyed. Check out Rush 2049, NFL Blitz, and NHL Hitz if you ever get the chance.

@davillain-: Oh my. I had no idea Midway was going through some hard times, I always though their games were making them money, but I never thought miss management could play a bigger part then their games flop if that was the case, thanks.

I do know they made some good Pinball games which I do know they were high regarded back during the Arcade days.

Yeah, Midway had it going for them until things went bad.