14 DAY TRIAL // When a videogaming company hits a rough patch, the earliest signs of trouble, apart from red underlined numbers in financial reports, are news that important people are leaving the company. It happened when Flagship Studios went down and it seems to be happening now to Midway.
Mike Bilder, who joined the company sometime in 2000 working as a game programmer and then becoming executive producer, director of production and, lately, studio head, is responsible for some of the biggest hits of the company, working directly on or supervising the production of games like Stranglehold, Blitz: The League or the Mortal Kombat franchise. His departure might even set back the production schedule on the eagerly waited Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe game that Midway has been heavily promoting.
It seems that Bilder has chosen to accept an offer from another developer, although no names were given, and now Midway is actively searching candidates to fill his position, saying that "We are evaluating internal and external candidates for the role, and both Blitz: The League II and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, as well as other projects in the Chicago studio, are on track for successful launches".
Mona Hamilton, vice president of marketing since 2003, and Reilly Brennan, vice president of media relations since the same year, also left the company "and will be pursuing other opportunities". And Kotaku reports that more senior leadership figures left or are planning to leave the financially troubled company.
The bad news comes just as Midway reported some of the worst results in the history of the company. A 34.8 million dollar loss has been revealed with sales decreasing sharply over the last year. More bad news emerged as two Midway games, The Wheelman and This Is Vegas, were delayed to 2009.