Midway Wants To Keep Mortal Kombat

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As most of you are aware, Midway was forced to file Chapter 11 a few weeks ago, which immediately sparked plenty of conversation. What was to happen to their major franchises like Mortal Kombat?

Well, the first thing they did is take Ubisoft as a partner in pushing Wheelman through the final stages of development and into production. As for MK, a lot of people have assumed the legendary fighting series would change hands (the hot rumor is that it might go to Capcom), but Midway says they really want to hold on to it. Despite new documents that said Midway could possibly pursue the sale of MK, the MTV Multiplayer blog reports that the struggling publisher doesn't want to lose Scorpion and Co. Said spokesperson Geoff Mogilner:

"It's not our goal to sell 'Mortal Kombat.' It is something that, in the world of scenarios, it is something that could happen here. But it's not something that we as a company are going for."

Mogilner admits that there will always be publishers who are interested in the franchise, which he estimates has raked in over $1.5 billion in the past. He says he won't lie about the fact that Midway has discussed the possibility of a sale with publishers, and it could be an easy way of making a lot of money very quickly. But at the end of the day, Midway really doesn't want to sell Mortal Kombat. So we'll just have to wait and see what happens; Chapter 11 isn't the end of the world for big companies these days, as it's more about "reorganization" than anything else. Can MK survive this restructuring...?

3/4/2009 Ben Dutka

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