Midway Lays Off Nearly 70% of Austin Branch Staff, Cancels Unannounced Project
The layoffs were part of a "strategic workforce reduction" enacted by the troubled publisher, which will see a cut of about 10% of the company's global workforce. Interim CEO Matt Booty expressed remorse over the reduction.
"While this was a very difficult decision, we feel it was the right thing to do for the future of Midway," Booty said. "We view every game as an investment that must meet certain standards for quality, scheduling, and profitability."
While Booty did not specify which title was axed, sources within the company told Kotaku that the cancelled game was Criminal, an open-world crime effort in development at Midway's Austin branch.
Midway had announced in October of last year that it was developing two "ambitious open-world games." The first of the two was eventually revealed as Surreal Software's This Is Vegas (PC, PS3, 360), while Criminal was likely the second.
The news follows last week's revelation of a staggering $34.8 million loss in its 2008 fiscal second quarter, which in turn followed similarly disappointing first quarter losses of $34M.
Shortly after the disclosures, Midway Chicago head Mike Bilder resigned to pursue a position at another Chicago-based game development studio. Midway marketing vice president Mona Hamilton and media relations director Reilly Brennan were also confirmed to have left the company.
The layoffs mark the latest developments in what has proven a difficult year for Midway, which late last year announced a massive restructuring effort to bring the company to its first annual profit since 1999.
-
This is what, six weeks after Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke at E3 (in front of something like, uh, 24 people) about how Texas is so great for game developers.
I'd like it to be true, but it's not.-
-
Are you kidding? You clearly don't know the history of Austin and gaming. One of the Midway guys came into Tek Republik today to get his Playstation 2 fixed and gave me the news. Sucks for them. Area 51 was rushed out, and came out when too many good shooters were available. We get people playing it a bit here, but CoD4 rules the roost.