14 DAY TRIAL // Midway has released its financial results for 2007 to some disappointing reactions. The sales numbers for the whole year were $157.2 million, clearly down from the sales figure for last year of $165.6 million. Losses went up to $97.4 million, compared to 2006's number of $77.8 million.
The president and CEO of Midway, David F. Zucker, stated that: "Now that we have overcome many of the technology hurdles that we encountered over the last year, we anticipate smoother launches as we release our strong 2008 line-up". Optimism seems to be the feature of the day at Midway, even though results were worse than anticipated at the beginning of the year.
The main issue for the company in 2007 was the development of a standardized internal game engine for the PS3, that all development teams within Midway would use. As the process hit a few problems, it meant that PS3 products were delayed and that caused financial losses that otherwise would not have existed. The PS3 version of Stranglehold was one of the victims of this delay. Now, the development was complete and 2008 would see Midway reap the benefits of its strong PS3 lineup.
Zucker also stressed the commitment the company has to casual games. With the success enjoyed by DS title Touchmaster in the U.S. and by Wii title Game Party, Midway sees a 2008 in which it will profit from the increase of the casual games market. An Internet portal is due to be launched as soon as possible, featuring games that are easy to play, yet addictive.
Unreal Tournament remains one of the big hits that Midway released last year. With over 1 million copies already shipped and with sales still going strong, the publisher and developer says it has big plans for the game. Along bug fixing and the occasional re-balancing, Midway aims to release some new content later this year.