Midway closes Austin development studio News

Midway Games has announced plans to axe 25 per cent of staff, cancel some of the projects it currently has in development and close its Austin studio.

That'll mean redundancies from Midway's offices in San Diego, Austin and Chicago. Around 180 staff will go from product development, QA, marketing, PR, accounts, sales, submissions and IT. The projects being thrown in the bin were all due for release in 2010 and 2011, and had not been made public.

Midway Austin was known as Inevitable Entertainment before it was acquired in 2004. The studio worked on titles such as Tribes: Aerial Assault, The Hobbit and Area 51.

"The cost-reduction measures are vital for us to rationalise our operations and provide the resources necessary for our core properties to succeed," said bossman Matt Booty. He blamed "current economic conditions" for the "challenges" being faced by Midway at present.

Midway is in danger of defaulting on its debts of USD 240 million, and could be delisted from the stock exchange.