the Rape of Midway Games

a long time ago, in a city far far away (at least from where i'm at right now), the Chief Monkey Officers sought to bleed as much money as they can from the company before high tailing it out of town to escape the destruction they left behind in the wake of:

i have come to the realization that douche nozzles with MBAs (and marketing veeps) who goes into a company who knows nothing about that industry - only takes the job to make out like a bandit not caring about all the peons who work there.

Work Work Work

Me Not That Kind of Orc

and anyone who plays RTS games knows that you can't do $#!t with out the humble peon worker. (images courtesy of battle.net)

note: i started writing this article dec 1st, so this article may sound a bit dated. also, i thought against publishing this since it didn't seem nice to comment on the people who used to be with my former employer (i left more than a year ago -- the writing was on the wall -- and it wasn't hard to see this coming. i gave the company 5 years left instead of just one). anyways, in light of the following articles, it was time to add my 2 cents: Midway execs get rich while company crashes joystiq.com - Dec 23rd 2008 Midway Execs Raked In Big Bucks While Company Foundered ign.com - Dec 23, 2008

let's take a look back at Midway Games when the sith began to take control of the senate.

David F. Zucker Named Midway's Chief Executive Officer and President
may 07 2003

Midway Games Acquires "Area 51" Developer Inevitable for $2.1 Million
October 11, 2004

Midway Games Acquires "Mortal Kombat" Developer Paradox Development
November 30, 2004

Midway Games Acquires Aussie Developer Ratbag for $5.6 Million
August 4, 2005

Midway Games Acquires U.K.-Based Pitbull Syndicate for $3.1 Million
October 4, 2005

more than $11 million so far (ongoing salaries and the cost for paradox, etc.). but first, in light of this whole financial market disaster the whole world is currently in, a snapshot of Midway's stock at the time Mr. Zucker started to the day he filed his fire sale [businessweek.com].

MWY - Midway Games historical price
March 07, 2003 to December 09 2005
a healthy 662.67% gain. nice.
(chart from Google Finance)

this is where it dawned on me, that everyone in the financial sector are also only there to take your money. more on this a little later.

continuing, there was businessweek.com interview "Sumner Redstone, Video-Game Whiz" that has a few juicy tidbits.

...the media mogul,... sat down and explained why he's such a fan of the video-game industry -- even though he has never played such a game [ Mortal Kombat ] himself.

"this company [ Midway Games ]-- which was hardly known a year ago..."

"I don't have any information that is not public. I have told David to never give me any material inside information."

on Paramount making an Area 51 movie:
"I have absented myself completely. [Because Redstone also owns a 70% stake in Viacom, he has recused himself from Viacom discussions concerning Midway to avoid conflicts of interest. ...]

redstone has absolutely no idea what it takes to make a video game. he was someone who had a big bag of money, looking for a project to see if he can get into the video game market. the chiefs smelt blood. here's where the raping begins.

Midway Games to Sell $75 Million in Convertible Notes
May 24, 2006

Video Game Publisher Midway Faces Investor Lawsuits
July 23, 2007

Midway Games CEO David Zucker Resigns
March 20, 2008

Redstone Sells Majority Stake in Midway Games
December 1, 2008

MWY - Midway Games historical price
December 09 2005 to March 31 2008
(chart from Google Finance)
note: this chart does not include the 2008 global market meltdown numbers - only to the day zucker has resigned (almost an 88% drop)

how can redstone keep tabs on a company, that was "hardly known a year ago" (NFL blitz, NBA jam, ... mortal kombat... whatever...), let alone take a no hands approach to running the company is beyond me. he hires some guy who also knows nothing about making video games, and basically "talks the company up, just to drive it into the ground". the guy also plays the moronic "increase market share by buying your smaller competitors" bull $#!t rule.

a whole bunch of peons in the studio were perplexed at the decisions to buy studios (all over the world) only to shut them down in a matter of months (and no, no technology was ever gained from buying these studios - a sequel or 1 was sometimes done... and that's it...). and instead of reappropriating resources on projects that clearly didn't show progressive results, more money was poured into sinking boat anchors. wtf.

image courtesy of ibdeditorials.com

as for the cash infusion, there was no rhyme or reason for it at the time (other than to take more money from these "investors"). did redstone benefit from the convertible notes sales to cover his enormous loses? probably not. but i don't think the company burned through all of that cash on day to day expenses either.

zucker has managed to leave the company with a lower stock value and a humongous debt. the day before he was hired, midway was trading at $3.57 (and at around $8million in debt at the end of 2002). and on the day he left: $2.01 (and a $250million debt).

the following should be in a separate article (since it's getting a little long already - but i don't want to revisit this in a future article). back to the money people. these dirty wh*res would lie, cheat and basically steal the money that should have been given to the people who are actual making the products. i don't know what were they thinking when they basically cut all of the bonus/royalty numbers, adjusting the payout program or renege on reserves (scheduled retention bonuses) and expect the developers to stick around. it got so bad that there was a major meeting with the team and the finance department to explain their actions. no answers were ever given to the peon workers. the money monkeys would constantly repeat "the payout equations are complicated". i would love to see who can tell me the answer first, the finance department to rotate a point around a line in 3D space or if the coders can figure out how "complex" the royalty equations really are. i was going to go on and on about how a bunch of brand new cars (M5's M3's and other 5series vehicles) all of these execs suddenly showed up literally on the following monday right after the theft-fest meeting - all in all, the peons got the shaft.

anyways, what's left of Midway Games right now? everyone who has nothing to do with video games are gone. that's finally a good thing. but, a lot of people i knew are also no longer there. and the ones who are still there... can finally enjoy their down time after crunching for this winter's holiday season releases (maybe permanently, too). it was pretty interesting seeing how many linked-in profile updates were fired up right after this meltdown.

it sucks that matt booty got left in the path of destruction with more than a quarter billion dollar debt to figure out. but i trust him more than any of the other "CEOh-nos" to run a video game company. an actual game developer with experience. but i would actually recommend to leave this disaster and start a brand new studio. leave the legacy of the old studio to the former board of directors and past CEOs. there is no away to keep this studio running anymore except to sell off the assets and IP for the new "owner". basically, a reset like atari did is needed.

i would like to leave this post with a pretty interesting interview with Eugene Jarvis who made a lot of arcade games that many of you may have dropped hojillion quarters in.

The Making of…NARC
edge-online.com - September 16, 2008
“The company was screwed up, like their worst competitor had staffed the upper management. The guys they hired could not have done a better job of destroying everything. A guy with no knowledge about videogames says: ‘What’s wrong with this company is we need more schedules and managers’.”

game makers likes to nickel and dime you too

on one of my previous article, i was originally going to title it "pooping out games - now with ad supplements". but the topic warranted a whole separate article.

Sony, Double Fusion sign in-game ad deal
joystiq.com - July 10 2008

EA, Massive extend in-game ad deal through next two years
joystiq.com - Mar 18th 2008

Study: in-game advertiser says 82% of you don't mind in-game ads
joystiq.com - Jun 18th 2008

now, i'm not saying that the concept is bad. but if the game is going to be designed with ad's first, games second... (and i'm talking about the console market) then you shouldn't be in the video game business. in fact, i hope you go out of business. and i'm calling out the 82% acceptance study bull-$#!t - or they are not telling the whole story.

anyways, let's start with why advertising in video games is something we even need to think about.

Devs Need To Watch Advergaming, Corporate Training
gamasutra.com - October 29, 2008
"the games industry is worth over $40 billion worldwide"... "advertising is a $270 billion industry in the US"...

those are indeed impressive numbers. but i'm sure you've seen the myriad of negative posts, comments and replies about ads in games that all boils down to - if there are ads in the game, the game better be for free or waaaay less than the full sticker price. the fact that many consumers will not see a price break while the publishers will reap on both ends is causing a rift with gamers. the developers (not to be confused with the executive douche bags who happends to work at a video game company) also sees this and feels for the gamers.

Don't like in-game ads? Mercenaries 2 lets you blow that sh*t up
destructoid.com - July 21 2008

now, going back to the billions of dollars Gamasutra article, the speaker went on to say: "Get Involved -- Before Proctor And Gamble Forces You To" -- that has got to be one of the dumbest FUD scare tactic line i have ever heard. i say, go ahead, let P&G do it. it is going to be no different than what burger king has done back in 2006. it was beneficial for BK and i bet the parents loved it when the games were sold for less than the price of a whopper combo.

Eat Like a King. Play Like a King
xbox.com

Over 2 million BK games served
gamespot.com - Dec 20, 2006

Burger King profits up 40% thanks to video games
videogamer.com - Jan 31, 2007

so why does everyone (who isn't a gamer) want to shove ads down your gaming thumbs? i mean, i understand that product placement is a tried and true method of advertising. but do it for the right reasons - or else, the gamer will be thinking they just shelled out $60 bucks for a game that came with nag-ware; ad-ware; ad-banner; ad-supported; fill-in-the-blank-with-more-ads-shoved-down-my-throat-and-ruin-my-escape-from-reality-when-all-i-wanted-to-do-was-frag-my-friends-and-chain-saw-grubs-in-half-and-call-in-air-strikes all day.

was that last line annoying to read? good, because that's what your damn ads would feel like if i played your games. now, back to the douche bag execs who wants to nickel and dime you:

Microsoft contemplating for-pay Avatar accessories
joystiq.com - Aug 1 2008

Free-to-play Battlefield Heroes delayed
arstechnica.com - July 30 2008

EA's future plans for Spore: hope you like expansions
arstechnica.com - July 30 2008

EA would 'love' to charge for Spore parts ... I bet they bloody would
destructoid.com - July 29 2008

now, as for spore's expansion, i don't mind as long as the price is right for the new features. but if it's only for incremental features (such as madden football year after year) - then it better be for $20 or less. better yet - free or less than $10 DLC.

Activision: if we can't run a game into the ground, we don't want it
arstechnica.com - November 06, 2008

Kotick: Vivendi Titles Dropped Due To Lack Of Sequel Potential
gamasutra.com - November 6, 2008

Blizzard: We're Not "Milking" StarCraft
edge-online.com - October 13, 2008

yeah, that last one (starcraft) came at a time when everyone was wearing their sequels haters-pants on. but, and i am such a blizzard fan-boy, hope that all races will have some sort of playable campaign mode so you are not stuck with just one side of the story. it would make the game... well... sort of boring if you, say, only had to play the marine campaign mode to begin with. anyways, back to the player-haters:

Activision no longer cares about games it can't milk to death
destructoid.com - November 06, 2008
"Something tells me that if the videogames market has another crash like the famous one of 1983, Activision will have a big hand in its arrival. "

ok, now that was just uncalled for. the gaming crash of '83 was because of too many games in the market. and i mean, crap games. if you're saying diablo, starcraft and warcraft are going to cause a gaming crashing -- you're on crack. oh, wait -- those are blizzard's games. um... call of duty 6, uh... i guess, um... oh! there's guitar hero... on crack.

huh..., there aren't that many if you ask me. it seems you would have the power to pick and choose which games to buy and which to ignore. a far cry from flooding the market with a whole heap of random and $#!t games. and now, with download-able games -- there will never be another game glut crash when stores will refuse to stock games because of the limited shelf space. if anything, this will help propel games that are worthy of your precious gaming time to receive your attention instead of the shovel-ware garbage.

pooping out games

Wonderman looks like she's trying to drop a mean duce. but it's not as bad as how EA pretty much decided to destroy a fairly popular title by announcing this:

DICE currently working on 5 Battlefield games
June 24 2008

EA Has Five Battlefields In the Oven
June 24 2008

no matter what kind of resources you have to pull this off, the thought of -- "omg, there's going to be 5 games of this?" just makes me want to say: f#ck it. i only want one good game. not 5 mediocre ones.

and if you're gonna $#!t out games year after year - don't be surprised when the public respond with - "didn't that come out last year?"

a title needs to have time between sequels. a lot of gamers are getting to know what studios are producing the fun time-suck games versus the"alternate year" studios. which in my opinion tarnishes the "franchise". [ infinity ward vs. treyarch ]

now, i can't tell you a single person i know who bought consecutive years of the madden games. and if there's someone out there who did, you're a tool. so what about these announcements:

EA craves sequels for Dead Space, Army of Two, and Battlefield: Bad Company
EA: Dead Space, Army of Two, Bad Company sequels in the works
EA Considering Sequels to Dead Space, Army of Two
oct 23 2008 - three games - three links

as long as it's every other year - then i don't mind. but if you're going to shovel it down our face every year - people are gonna start ignoring the marketing blitz. while paying more attention to these kinds of headlines:

EA Laying Off 600 As Revenue, Losses Rise, Citing Weakening Retail
Oct 31 2008

EA promises its games won't be 'crappy' anymore
Aug 5 2008

EA: Investors don't give a sh*t about quality
July 22 2008

Lawsuit flags EA for illegal procedure on football monopoly
June 12 2008

so you poop out "crappy" games because you are only interested in increasing shareholder value? not caring about the ramifications for the long term? (and it really isn't that long: only 18-24 months cycles - for a title.) and trying to squeeze something out in every 12 month (again, of the same project) -- just to see customer loyalty destroyed at the end of the fiscal year? good going f#ck bags.

oh, you want new buyers? thanks for caring. we're the ones who recommends games to your new potential buyers.

if you have nothing new, nothing exciting and not worth paying full price for -- then why do you wonder people are not buying your games. you'd be lucky if someone waits until it hits the bargain bin.

stick to new/multiple titles. don't grind on the same title until it literally turns in to dust. over exposure is a sure way to turn people off. sequels aren't a bad thing (can't wait for diablo3 & starcraft2). but i guess that's not stopping articles (like this one) from flying off the shelf (even though we are all pretty much talking about the same thing):

Insomniac loves sequels, so it should MARRY them
oct 23 2008

Why Are Gamers Cynical Of Sequels?
oct 24 2008

ps. yes, i know the DC characters here have nothing to do with this article, but they were too easy to pass up to make d!ck and f@rt jokes with...

oh no, x-play - not you too

here are but a few emails snippets i have written in the past:

2004-06-02:
techTV, used to be my favorite channel. until G4 bought them out -- it has now become one of the worst cable channels on the planet.

they have so many shows that does the same d@m# thing: 4 video game review shows, 3 retro vidoe game shows, 2 "behind the video game" report shows, etc. no wonder they got their @$$ kicked by just one video game review show from techTV.

so far, judgement day and g4tv are the dumbest shows i've ever seen. and electric playground is no x-play.

i hope gamer.tv and pulse will be better. cinematech looks to be interesting. but i dunno -- we shall see...


fast forward to 2004-07-28:
icons on G4TechTV is a pretty cool show. it's like "the history of" the topic they cover...


fast forward to 2006-10-12:
hahahahaha, G4 is dead, finally...


or so i thought. but these remarks are pretty much on par with nearly everyone on the planet who felt like they got their sack kicked when cun#cast basically neutered techTV. dumbing it down to level of spikeTV. (although, to spikeTV's credit, i'll have to hand it to them for bringing XMC over here. their one saving grace for launching what i like to call "ninjaTV" viewing on both of these channels.)


but, back to the original reason for posting this entry:

Top 5 Games For Real Men [ G4 - 20080604 ]


WTF! this was basically a commercial for all of EA's games. oh, adam sessler, one of the biggest reason i watch your show (besides morgan webb) was your unwavering and candid reviews while not selling out. most of the time it's obvious when you're placating, but this was pretty much... um... in bad taste.

FU, for allowing this $#!t out.

Black? Army of Two?
im glad you have GoW on there, but where's CoD4 and Halo in this mix? how the HELL are those better than these. "pressure cooking can crushing granado your barrels will unleash" IS CoD4 (and swarm on legendary is...). and how "...on a collision course with death" isn't either of these makes me wanna remove this show from all of my DVR's and podcatchers.

Fight Night?
are you outta your f'n mind? sure, the game "looks good" -- but the (blending) animations are one of the most piss poor results i have ever seen on a AAA title. which leads to not-so-fun game play. the game feels sluggish - and not in the boxing sort of way. hopefully, they'll fix these issues in round 4. but, if you needed to pick a fighter for dudes, how did DoA4 miss the list. i mean, what man doesn't like bouncy boobs. and if he needs to pick a guy... then he should be playing wresting games no matter how bad it is.

Madden?
christ, i cannot believe this is #1 on the list. you might as well put tiger woods pga tour instead of GoW to complete the "men who has no eyes when playing video games with broken fingers" list. madden is no "series". everyone i know, who even owns one, just has that -- one of it. some back to the the gamecube days. that includes the ncaa football "series". "nothing alienates men and women more..." wait... there might be some truth to that for this... damn, caught in my own logical vortex. oh wait! got it, "nothing alienates men who think they're real men and everyone else more than..." eh, what ever, this post is stupid.

please don't do this again, or else leave G4 and go somewhere else (like to revision3) and make the show good again (don't leave webb behind either).

i