Midway fuckin over the working man.
polycounter lvl 17
Or ex-working man i guess would be more like it.
Don´t know if you´re talking about this somewhere already but yeah.
http://kotaku.com/5162447/midway-offloading-mortal-kombat-and-screwing-former-employees
What the fuck? Any midway-ites here being affected?
Don´t know if you´re talking about this somewhere already but yeah.
http://kotaku.com/5162447/midway-offloading-mortal-kombat-and-screwing-former-employees
What the fuck? Any midway-ites here being affected?
Replies
I'm still stung by Midway after the last MK game. Not only was it naff, but they they pulled the most awesome fatality ever (The jokers joke cun, real shot one), and messed around with it...
Original:
UGH, no thanks, they'll double the boob size, remove fatalities and turn all the men into teenage fem-boys (except Jax, he'll get turned into a hulking man-beast)
Back on topic, that really sucks for the employees
I hate to see people get screwed like this but that is how Midway was. Good fucking riddance.
You can play that already. It's called "Are You a CEO? -- PUNCH YOU IN THE NUTZ"
It's fun and completely mobile. You can take it with you wherever you go!
I wouldn't say bitter but when these guys are a bunch of douchebags and when you go in there and work for them for a certain position and then 4 months down the road they turn around and say well technically your a "blah blah" but really you aren't.
Yeah fuck that. Good luck to anyone that is still there but seriously would you still be on the Titanic when it was already halfway sunk? No you wouldn't. Get the fuck off the boat. It's sinking.
Japanese developer does not = Square Enix. There are loads of other good ones out there. Played Street Fighter IV yet?
simmer down there Strega Nona, I'm not a fan of Street Fighter and I would not want to see a Street Fighter-ish MK. Also, square wasn't my first thought, it was mostly ATLUS, SNK etc..
If only the management put some of that money back into the company on a new IP maybe the company could make a comeback... seems the name Midway now is probably too tarnished to be worth saving now though I think.
/me upgrades punch to potato gun and adjusts range for 1 meter
Midway Early 2008: This is great. We mo-capped over 2000 moves, and took inspiration from all the best games in the genre. This will be the best game ever.
DELAY + Long period of Silence
Midway Fall 2008: Ugh guys, we were only able to get about ten moves in. So yeah, everyone has the same ten moves, even the moves they don't do in real life. All those features we promised are cut. The DLC roster has been cut, instead you can download the play by play guys, and they will hang your console if you try to use them! .... in fact, if you want the truth, we trashed the game, and imported a few of the guys into Mortal Kombat Armageddon, then we reskinned the logo! Have fun, we're never going to mention this game again...
I think they hold the record for the first time a company previewed a highly awaited game and turned away 95% of their target audience.
It's like finally bringing home Street Fighter 4, and it played like a golf game where everyone has Dhalsim's moves.
Namco could probably do it justice. Tekken 6 is extremely fucking popular here (I play it once a day and still have to wait a good 20 mins to get a seat)
no metro sexual square-enix homo boys in this.
We actually had this convo on the midway boards last year, and most people agreed with me, even though they were big MK fans. They killed all the continuity, and made too many subpar games in a row, that no one cares about the franchise.
It got by on the blood gimmick in 1993, but that's about it. Otherwise, it's a very shallow game, with every character being the exact same gameplay wise. The other thing that made it cool was the characters, and the hidden mythology in the game, but they screwed the pooch on that because they continually retcon everything.
What? You liked that character. Nevermind what we said before. He's alive. He'll be back.
These days, $15million to $20 million deals are inked for way shittier, one off titles; I bet they could sell MK for $35 odd million?
I haven't been a fan of the game for some time. It would be nice to see a reboot.
That doesn't change the fact that they're a bunch of cock smokers, though.
I just hope a western company picks up MK with a mind to fix it and not milk it for cash.
Ed Baboon will get about a million dollars for his involvement because they didn't want him to leave. Seriously? A million.
http://kotaku.com/5163271/midway-to-keep-paying-mortal-kombat-creator-to-make-new-mortal-kombat
In the past no. Sure he has but with the way Midway is doing and screwing other employees I don't think this is the time to be giving guys million dollar bonuses.
Are you f'in kidding me, dude? Of course he does. Hundreds of people are getting screwed over so you can make an extra million- they are losing their homes and going into debt and forced to do who knows what, so you can get an extra million goddamn dollars- and that isn't your fault? Of course he has a say- "Don't give me this bonus, pay out what you already promised what you would pay out, which is also the ethical and just thing to do." That is what his say should be. How can you possibly absolve this spineless rat of any responsibility?
I stay out of these Midway threads usually because, frankly, anyone that stayed around I felt either knew what was coming or this would at least teach them a lesson, no empathy from me for that. But this sort of theft (and then the defense of it!), was just too much.
Rob, first you ask if it is Boon's fault that people are losing their homes and going into debt. If that is actually happening to people, it really is a terrible, terrible thing. BUT, I still don't see how that would be Boon's fault.
You are trying to tie that to the second issue, which is that of Boon's compensation package that was part of his contract of employment. He is entitled to it. It is a totally seperate issue from the fact that people are losing their homes. (If in fact they are. I haven't heard such reports as of yet.)
Now, what DOES seem to be totally F'd up from my perspective is that the execs that drove the company into the ground are paying themselves bonuses while the rank and file are being screwed out of a their PTO. That is just wrong, wrong, WRONG.
Boon is a contributing employee, just like the other developers. He is entitled to the terms of his employment, just as the other guys are. It is wrong that the "little guys" are getting screwed out of their PTO, no doubt. But why does he have to take it on the chin and fork over what he earned for his co-workers? It is not his responsibility, the onus is on the execs to fulfill the promises that they made with the other guys. Is it the amount of money at stake? What if Boon was only owed $1500? Would you suggest that he forfeit that?
Anyway, like I said, I am not looking for a flame war. Just trying to explain my perspective.
Fixed.
Woo! k had to get that out of me...
After getting hired on and then let go 3 months later, selling almost all of my crap, and doing a 1200 mile drive twice down to Texas (one for each car I own) I should have an ear full for you guys. But I don't have that much to say. All I can do is use what's pissing me off to do something positive.
As a note: I am not pissed off at the team I was on. They were/are great guys and I was lucky to have worked with them. Even knowing this was gonna happen, we all worked our fucking asses off doing 100 hour weeks till the last day. You only do that shit when you actually care about what the fuck you're doing. It was nothing they could have done short of robbing a bank (which we should have done... 30 guys in clown masks or Point Break President masks.).
To be clear, I am angry at corporate irresponsibility and lack of accountability and seemingly being untouchable and still rewarded for it. This is across all industries.
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/03/05/midway-insider-trade-claims-likely-focus-redstone-depositions
http://kotaku.com/5191320/midway-in-trouble-over-dodgy-executive-bonuses
(links to this page: http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2009/03/feds-creditors-call-proposed-midway-executive-bonuses-outrageous-disingenuous.html )
I like this part.
""Senior management should not be paid incentive bonus payments... to perform duties required to be performed by their obligations under the Bankruptcy Code.""
These guys are trained to exact the maximum amount of cash from every transaction they possibly could, of course they're going to try one last grab at the last big pile of money they'll ever see. With the crap they've pulled and how notorious they are in our incredibly small industry, they know "they'll never work in this town again".
I think we should put 1k of singles in paper sack, tell them its 100k then lock them all in cage with 29 various melee weapons and let them battle it out. We could sell tickets and the profits could go toward a new start up run by ex-midway employees who got the shaft.
in the wrong profession.
Ironically the tutor who told me this was wearing a top hat and tails, smoking a big cigar and
had a monkey butler.
seriously, just fucking drop your quality of life by one Mercedes a month and that's enough money to support people in your company that need it. They act like they NEED this extra money. Get off it.
The people in charge never cared about the quality of their games. They were just in it for a quick buck and obviously even in bankruptcy their attitudes will not change.
wow.
Honestly I am surprised that more people that have lost everything haven't done this. Or gone into wall street or whatever. I wouldn't want it to happen but these ass hats at Midway don't give a damn about anything except their own needs.