Midway Targets Hardcore Gamers

With a market share of just above 1 percent, Midway is looking to capitalize on the new console market.

After years of losing market share, Midway is ready to get back on track with the next generation of consoles. "Every time you get a new wave of technology, the market increases by 15 to 20 percent, so there's always room for another publisher to step in and grab a large chunk of the market share," said marketing director, Al King. "In the last cycle, that happened with Activision and Take-Two. The whole reason Midway is reinventing itself is to do exactly that; we're going to be a top five third-party publisher by the end of this cycle."

With games like Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Stranglehold and Happy Feet, a movie license game, King feels Midway has an "inspiring" portfolio. "We've got teensy little penguins sliding around on ice. Then we've got characters ripping each others' hearts and spines out. And we've also got high art, cinematic, next-generation stuff with Stranglehold .... I think we've got all the bases covered," he said.

King admits that Midway is suffering a lack of respect from the hardcore gamer segment, responding that, "If that's the way they think, there's no point whining about it. The challenge comes with understanding why that is, and then deciding whether you can fix it, and whether you can be arsed. We can fix it, and we can be arsed, so we just have to get on with it."

Thanks, Gamesindustry.biz.