Midway Games

From Sega Retro


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Midway Games Inc. was a video game developer and later publisher.

It has existed in numerous forms, starting as Midway Manufacturing Co. as a manufacturer of pinball tables. It was acquired by Bally in 1969, and by 1973 was taking an interest in the newly formed video game industry. In 1983 Midway's pinball division was merged with Bally's to form Bally Midway Manufacturing Co., Inc.. Midway were seen to be the video game arm of the conglomerate, while Bally did pinball. Many early Sega arcade games were distributed in the US by Bally Midway.

In 1988 the company was purchased by WMS Industries, and after a further buyout of Time Warner Interactive (and Atari Games), everything video game related (including Williams Entertainment, formely Tradewest) was merged into a new Midway Games in 1996. Williams Entertainment became Midway Home Entertainment while Time Warner Interactive became Midway Games West.

Midway developed and published some of the most successful video games of the 80s before striking gold in the 90s with the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games and NBA Jam series of sports games. In 1998 Midway Games split from WMS Industries, becoming its own separate company.

Their output started to decline in the 2000s — and their bottom line plummeted, leading to their bankruptcy in 2009. Warner Bros. currently owns most, if not all, of their IP assets (bar some Atari assets, now owned by a different Atari Inc.).

To keep things simple, this page covers all the divisions of Midway post-1996.

Softography

Bally Midway-Published arcade games

Master System

Mega Drive

Mega CD

Sega 32X

Game Gear

Saturn

Dreamcast

References