Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

I am sure that most have heard the phrase, “kicking a dog when its down”.  Well it seems that Midway is that dog as of late.  First they had their majority stock holder sell all of his investment in the company for a measly $100,000.  Now, only two months after that sale, Midway has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

Midway announced their filing this morning in US Bankruptcy court in the District of Delaware.  The bankruptcy filing allows Midway to continue day to day operations while it either renegotiates its debts, sells the company or IPs, or just liquidates the company.  The bankruptcy became unavoidable after Summer Redstone sold his stock in the company, thereby accelerating pending bond payments to creditors.

Matt Booty, current CEO of Midway, talked up the fact that while the filing for bankruptcy was unfortunate, the company had success in the Holiday 2008 quarter.  Booty announced that Mortal Kombat vs. DC shipped two million copies, while TNA Impact shipped one million units and Game Party shipped over three million units.  While that sounds good, you do have to look at the wording.  Mr. Booty said shipped, not sold.  That means that while they shipped two million copies of Mortal Kombat vs. DC, it does not mean it sold that many copies.

It is hard to say where Midway goes from this filing.  While they do have some interesting properties they could use, they have cancelled many more that might have helped them with success.  One has to worry if they are banking on The Wheelman to save them from financial ruin, although another Game Party might work, as it seems to sell like hotcakes on the Wii.