Rumor: Mortal Kombat Team May Leave Midway

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Patrick McCarron

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<b>First I must remind everyone, this is simply just a rumor at this point. Because the story is spreading around everywhere, we figured it deserved some coverage. There is no solid source to this beyond Kotaku's "sources" and any of our sources have not said anything to indicate this could be happening. So keep that in mind when reading this.</b>

<a href="http://kotaku.com/5196568/mortal-kombat-team-looking-to-split-from-midway">Kotaku is reporting</a> tonight that sources at Midway are saying that the <b>Mortal Kombat Team</b> is looking to split from Midway. The rumors say that senior leaders in the <b>Mortal Kombat Team</b> are negotiating the moving of the team from Midway to another studio. Here is what Kotaku had to say about it:

The MK team, which comprises about 50 developers, is said to be in discussions with a handful of unnamed publishers, with senior members of the group handling negotiations for a possible exodus from Midway. According to Midway sources who wished to remain anonymous, one of the catalysts for the move is a lack of payment in bonuses due to MK team members based on meeting Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe sales targets.

Sources said that the Mortal Kombat team has become increasingly "frustrated" with the handling of Midway's bankruptcy filing. MK staffers also expressed irritation from being in the position of delivering million unit-selling titles on time and on a bi-annual schedule while other projects at the company languish in development.

I am not surprised to hear about discussions with other studios by some members of the team, because of <b>Midway's</b> difficult financial situation. But I am rather surprised that this information would be leaked by anyone part of the group looking to leave <b>Midway.</b> I would assume that if it were true, this is a very delicate situation that could become much more difficult if this news were to leak out prematurely. So if there is any reason I don't trust this rumor it is because of that. Usually when a team, or part of a team, departs their company the news breaks only after it has already happened.

The article then later goes on to discuss the upcoming <a href="http://www.trmk.org/games/mortal_kombat_9/">Mortal Kombat 9,</a> and how the team if they were to leave would be upset to leave the upcoming game behind.

If the MK team—who are apparently not under contract at Midway—does find a new studio to call home at a publisher other than Midway, the fighting game franchise may not go with them. That, as well as having to abandon work on the follow-up to MK vs. DC, tentatively titled Mortal Kombat 9, was going to be "tough."

I've already seen a few instances of this being misinterpreted. What this basically says is that, unless Midway themselves is in on this plan, it is likely the <b>Mortal Kombat</b> franchise will not be following the departing team to another publisher. So obviously the team leaving the in-progress game behind would be very "tough" but necessary thing for them to do.

Until we hear more, I would still chalk this up to a rumor and please try to keep your thoughts on the issue a bit rational until more solid information is revealed. Rumors are just that, rumors, until facts confirm or deny them. Any fan of the <b>Mortal Kombat</b> series should understand that fairly well.
 
News is news and Kotaku gets it faster than pretty much anybody else. They do report on rumors a lot yes, but I haven't seen a lot of instances of them messing up royally. What's your beef with that site Tim?

But whatever, my thoughts on this have already been voiced. New team, fresh faces, hopefully somebody who loves the franchise as much as we fans do. Change isn't always bad. Stagnation however, is always bad.
 
New team, fresh faces, hopefully somebody who loves the franchise as much as we fans do. Change isn't always bad. Stagnation however, is always bad.

QFT. Sadly, its best for the franchise. (still has a weak spot for Midway, but MKvDC needs fixed.....BADLY and Midway cant even afford to patch it)

News is news and Kotaku gets it faster than pretty much anybody else. They do report on rumors a lot yes, but I haven't seen a lot of instances of them messing up royally. What's your beef with that site Tim?

Thats exactly the problem. They'll post a story, no matter if they even got a legit source or not. They are just after getting hits. I cant think of any other reason for them to post the things they do. They post something only to see it quickly proved false 98% of the time.
 
Theres been a "walk-out" as such before... Never really effected much, except the MK:SF game. Midway has ONE big title series and I always ask people; would Midway really want to throw it away. My experiences though is when rumours started floating, its eaiser to add more to the mill, instead of investigating the truth.
 
How long has the current team been working on the MK franchise, outside of Boon? If the team does leave they leave behind at least the current engine, property of midway, which another team can come in and build from. Unless they were starting from scratch with MK9 which I doubt.
 
Well that kinda explains why there hasn't been any MK vs. Dc Universe downloadable content. Hell Street Fighter 4 already has DLC!
 
How long has the current team been working on the MK franchise, outside of Boon? If the team does leave they leave behind at least the current engine, property of midway, which another team can come in and build from. Unless they were starting from scratch with MK9 which I doubt.

Quite a few members of the team have been around since MK1+MK2. Boon, Goskie, Beran, Vogel, and Forden just to name a few off the top of my head.

They are building MK9 on updated version of the Unreal 3 engine modified for MKvsDCU. So could others come in if they left, yes. But where would Midway hire these people besides move some people over from other teams.

I'm sure if there is any truth to this rumor we'll know more about it by summer.
 
And of course there's always the chance MK will be sold off, so the question of where to get the people will be somebody else's problem.
 
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