Warner Bros. bid for the majority of Midway Games assets, for a reported $33 million, has been approved by the US court system. The assets include the Mortal Kombat franchise, as well as old-school titles such as Joust and Spy Hunter. The bankruptcy judge overseeing the sale wasn’t swayed by Threshold Entertainment’s argument that film producer Larry Kasanoff was the driving creative force in the Mortal Kombat franchise – an argument that most people in the games industry knew would amount to nothing.
The sale to Warner did not include two of Midway’s game development studios. Both Midway Newcastle and Midway San Diego will be closed if a buyer cannot be found soon. The Newcastle studio was responsible for the Wheelman franchise, while the San Diego studio created the recent TNA game. Warner Bros. has however bought the rights to the Wheelman franchise, but not the TNA license…
With the Mortal Kombat franchise moving to Warner can we expect another Mortal Kombat/DC crossover in the near future? Midway marks yet another game studio bought by Warner, the most notable purchase was of UK games studio Traveler’s Tales in 2007 – and since then we have had 2 Warner-owned properties produced by the company: LEGO Batman game and the soon to be released LEGO Harry Potter. Can we expect some Midway-owned properties to make the leap to LEGO titles? Who wouldn’t love to play LEGO Mortal Kombat..!
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[...] summer Warner Bros. finally sealed the deal on their purchase of Midway Games, the home of the Mortal Kombat franchise (amongst others). There [...]