Midway - What Happened?

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Music List:
NBA Jam - Main Menu
Mojo X - Skipping on a Riff
Bruno Freitas - When Night Falls
Pac-Man - Will You Continue
Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness - Cleopactra
Rampage 2 Universal Tour - Theme Song
EnergySounds - Retro Game
Ramon Arnella - My Dream (Instrumental)
Cruis'n USA - Menu Ambience (Arcade Version)
Cruis'n World - Jungle Bump (Arcade Version)
NBA Jam - 2nd Quarter (Arcade Version)
Pac-Man 99 - Top 100
Primal Rage - Diablo's Theme
DOOM - E1M3 - Dark Halls
Chopper Attack - Select Theme
Killer Instinct - Boxing Gym (Arcade Version)
Dr. Muto - The Lab
Sleeping Dogs - Title Theme
GTA San Andreas - Title Theme
Metal Slug 3 - Blue Water Fangs
GTA Online - Diamond Casino Heist Finale
Cruis'n USA - House Special Theme (Arcade Version)
Cruis'n USA - Hot Times (Credits Theme)
Tales of Phantasia - Be Absentminded (SNES Version)
Cruis'n Blast - Arcade Theme Song

#mattmcmuscles #midway #whathappened?

[GenerationWest]

Honestly never knew that Midway was that old, but it tried to change with the times, and now it's a WB Games subsidiary, milking Mortal Kombat properties. Watching it fall in real time was heartbreaking... But we still have Crazy Uncle Ed Boon!

[UfodexENMD]

This made me sad. Midway gave us such great games especially the sports games. Thanks for the childhood memories Midway

[RebelTaxi]

17:10 WB at least gave Midway its own world in Lego Dimensions. It's nice having a 3D sandbox with landmarks from Gauntlet or Rampage

[captainmidnight]

Great video, I never really knew what happened to them! Between Doom 64, Crusin USA and NFL Blitz, I was a big fan! I thought they were a way bigger deal than like, Activision when I was a little kid.

[Ricky_Retriever]

Actually, the real reason why Fear & Respect was cancelled is because the developers originally had in mind to make the game a narrative shooter akin to something like Max Payne, but Midway instead wanted the game to on an open world (GTA-Styled) direction to which the developers had to decline because they didn't have the recourses or time to make such a drastic change in scope. This was said by one of the game directors who worked on it on her personal website.

[StopSkeletonsFromFighting]

Just sitting here, enjoying some What Happened, and suddenly I’m in the video! Where’s my check, Matt??

[dansilvers]

Shortly after Midway fell apart, I was at an Autodesk presentation in Boston and met one of their artists. He gave me an "Art of Midway" book for reasons unknown to this day. It's an amazing treasure trove of concept art and inside info on a bunch of their old titles. Just one of those crazy, serendipitous treasures.

[atk]

for a company bringing "Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks", "The Suffering", "Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures", "Rampage: Total Destruction" it is very sad to see the company bankrupt

[jwalton]

Over the last few years Matt has become my favorite YouTuber. Thanks for the great videos

[alexn]

Gauntlet and Rampage deserve so much better. It's weird to think that Midway's old PS1 compilations were the thing that introduced young me to retro gaming, and it's tragic to see just how many of their IPs just fizzled.

[GeminiTasiri]

Man, the Fall of Midway had everything. Celebrity-starring games, questionable hiring choices*, desperate trend chasing, underestimating HD development costs, shady deals in upper managment, all in one continuous downward spiral.

*seriously, what was up with hiring the COO of Playboy? Were they hoping to get some investors purely on the ~scandalous~ headlines that would produce? Especially since he didn't seem to care about reversing the direction Midway was heading...

[kenmastersX]

I met Ed Boon at a CEO tournament hanging out with sonicfox. I told Ed I wanted a sequel to Smash TV, where afterwards Sonicfox asked "What's Smash TV?" I was never more sad after hearing those words from a young person not knowing about old midway stuff

[BryMoon]

Midway was one of my favorite developers, so much of my childhood gaming is tied to Midway. Even playing old Midway games today gives me nostalgia. They really died a hero, I clicked this on instant. Maybe an episode on another favorite of mine THQ.

[SAPProd]

Looks like we have a new champion for the earliest starting point of a What Happened episode (you wore the crown well, E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial). Gonna be hard to top this one on the video game side; probably would have to tackle the origins of Nintendo or something.

[MoonSpiritChannel]

Man, this hurts to see one of the most prolific game companies go down like this.

[darkchris]

I live in Chicago and I’m not far where Midway games used to be. I remember always being super excited passing by their studio and thinking what MK game they’re probably cooking up next.
It was sad when they closed down and their office was used by someone else.
Fun fact: when Midway Williams split, Williams moved one block from the old Midway office (where they have a towering and shiny building) and Netherrealm Games (currently making MK games) actually moved 2 blocks away from their old Midway office. Their new office building is really much better with the MK props by the main lobby to take quick pics.

[marcocamacho]

Your videos are the equivalent of the Saturday morning cartoons. Just love to see one of your videos every Saturday morning-ish

Thanks for the great content.

[shadowleon]

Midway is a company that I really miss.

[btrk]

Just came to say it's MS. Pac-Man, not Mrs! At that time in her life, she was living the free-wheeling "Sex and the Pac-City" lifestyle before she met Pac-Man and had a Pac-wedding. Though, really thinking about it further, shouldn't it have been Ms. Pac-Woman? Well, anyway.
Also not mentioned, Midway squeezed their Pac-Man license for as much as they could - there wasn't just the "unofficial" Ms. Pac-Man released by Midway, but also the "official bootleg" Pac-Man Plus, "good sequel" Jr. Pac-Man, "okay pinball game" Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man, "bad video-pinball game" Baby Pac-Man, and "WTF is this" Professor Pac-Man, all in the span of a few years.
On top of that Midway also released Namco developed Super Pac-Man and Pac-Land... that's a lot of Pac-Man.

[sugarfrosted]

I don't know why I'm surprised Midway Games got started with midway games.