Mortal Kombat studio renamed WB Games Chicago

Midway’s team behind the popular Mortal Kombat franchise (amongst other things) has been renamed WB Games Chicago by Warner Bros., according to published reports. The new name surfaced when several employees updated their LinkedIn profiles with the new company name. Warner Bros. purchased the studio and the Mortal Kombat brand for an estimated 33 million USD.

Of particular note is the LinkedIn profile of former Midway Chief Technology Officer, Michael Weilbacher, whose new title is “Head of a Game studio in Chicago at WB Games Inc.”

‘Nuff said.

Midway Sale to Warner Bros. Deal Approved

Chicago-based Midway, a once powerful gaming giant, has now gained approval to sell to Warner Bros. for $33 million. A Delaware bankruptcy judge found that all outstanding issues with the sale have been resolved and proceedings can move forward. The sale will cover “substantially all” of Midway’s assets to Warner Bros., the only company to place a bid.

If the sale goes through, Warner Bros. would assume control of the intellectual property for Mortal Kombat, Wheelman and most other current and older Midway assets. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty psyched about the thought of Mortal Kombat vs. F.E.A.R. or Wanted vs. Blitz.

WBIE highest bidder in Midway Auction..

According to several sources, most notably the L.A. Times, Warner Bros. has emerged as the sole bidder in the Midway bankruptcy auction - an event that the company had hoped would pull its fanny ever so slightly out of the financial fire. Midway put its assets up for auction in hopes of getting a high asking price than the 33 million USD that Warner Bros. wanted to give them, but no other offers came in.

Midway spokesman Geoff Mogilner told the L.A. times that the auction was basically “off” at this point.

Where Midway goes from here is unknown at this time. Does it accept the offers from Warner Bros. or keep looking for better deals? According to the report a Chicago investment firm and several publishers were interested in the auction, but apparently not enough to go above and beyond what WBIE has on the table.

Adding to the complication is a Tigon Studios claim that Midway owes it $200,000 for work on the Wheelman game and filmmaker Larry Kasanoff’s lawsuit over the Mortal Kombat rights..

What’s Next for Mortal Kombat?

Ever since Midway’s financial troubles started coming to a head, there’s been no shortage of interesting developments. First came Sumner Redstone’s fire sale of his Midway stock, which ended up raising more than a few eyebrows when the sale ultimately forced Midway into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Then came word that the beleaguered publisher had entered into an agreement with Ubisoft which will see Midway’s upcoming Vin Diesel helmed game, Wheelman, hitting store shelves with the Ubi logo. Now, in the wake of this week’s news that the Mortal Kombat franchise is up for sale, you can’t help but wonder just what’s going to become of the venerable fighting game franchise.

Of course, those of us here at Crispy Gamer are never ones to shy away from rampant speculation, so we took a long look into our magic crystal ball we keep locked away in the Crispy Vault (which in turn is hidden deep in the confines of the Crispy Cave), and came up with these potential fates for Mortal Kombat. Mind you, with the power to few these endless potential possibilities, some are bound to be a little more believable than others:

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Midway Bankrupcty Woes Continue

When a company is in such dire shape that it has to fire people and sell what makes up its core business you expect it to do anything it can do get the job done and get back on track. This is what Midway Games is apparently doing; the company is putting aside bonuses in excess of $3,755,000, according to documents filed with the bankruptcy court on February 12.

Meanwhile the company is putting every option on the table it can to stay afloat. It has already sold The Wheelman publishing rights to Ubisoft in key territories, and the company mentioned that it would consider selling the Mortal Kombat IP. 

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Ubisoft Takes the Wheel(man) from Midway

With all the trouble Midway has been facing lately, gamers have been wondering how everything would affect the upcoming titles that the publisher already had in development. Well, late yesterday we got the answer for at least one of those games. According to a statement released by Midway, Ubisoft will be riding shotgun when Vin Diesel gets the behind the wheel of Wheelman and rides off to retail on March 24th.

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UT3 Titan Pack Coming to PC, PS3

Midway and Epic Games announced this morning that the Titan Pack for Unreal Tournament 3 will be released on March 5 for the PlayStation 3 and PC. The completely free content pack includes 11 new multiplayer maps for maps for Deathmatch, CTF, Vehicle CTF and Warfare modes and eight maps from the first UT3 bonus pack and Xbox 360 version. The pack also offers the Greed mode - a “tug of war” style kill points battle, and Betrayal mode - a cutthroat style of play where alliances and teams can shift fluidly through a match.

New units in the pack include the new X-Ray deployable field - used to lay waste to foes, and the Link Station - a temporary repair unit that can be deployed to keep vehicles in top fighting condition. A new vehicle, the Stealthbender, comes equipped with a Link Station, an X-Ray Field, spidermine traps, and an EMP mine, but what makes it particularly lethal is its Necris stealth technology which renders it invisible for surprise attacks.

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