This morning Kotaku posted a poorly phrased story about a court filing from Midway Games that stated that they are selling the Mortal Kombat franchise assets. If you look at the court filings from Kotaku's source of the story, you'll find the true details behind the filing. I am not a lawyer, but deciphering the filing isn't that difficult. Basically it says three milestones that Midway Games' executives must meet in order to receive a bonus payout after the companies reorganization is completed. One of the three has already been completed, and that's the sale of publishing rights for Wheelman to Ubisoft. The other two are related to reorganization and could result in Midway selling their Mortal Kombat assets. But in these filings the sale of Mortal Kombat is optional and actually far less likely than Kotaku (and other MK sites) want you to think.

The second milestone is the following:

Milestone: Either (i) execution of an asset purchase agreement for the sale of Midway’s Mortal Kombat franchise assets or (ii) submission by Midway of a plan of reorganization to continue as a going concern. Bonus Amount: $1,292,500.

That milestone basically means a $1.2 million dollar bonus would be paid if Midway can either sell Mortal Kombat rights or put together a working Plan of Reorganization to reorganize Midway. In fact, Midway has 120 days from the initiation of the bankruptcy case to file the Plan of Reorganization, which puts the deadline at around June 11, 2009. It is fully expect for Midway to file the plan and hopefully have it approved with the bankruptcy court before the June 11th date. Here is the definition of a Plan of Reorganization from Midway's own Reorganization Glossary of Terms.

The reorganization plan that sets forth the rights of all classes of creditors. It may also include various repayment schedules pertaining to the various creditors. Once the plan is filed with the Court, creditors and equity holders vote to approve it. Upon completion of this step, and with the concurrence of the Court, the plan is said to be "confirmed."

The final milestone is a variation of the second one.

Milestone: The earlier to occur of (i) confirmation of a plan of reorganization or liquidation or (ii) closing of a sale of Midway’s Mortal Kombat franchise assets. Bonus Amount: $1,965,000.

Basically the milestones say that the Midway Games executives are to earn another $1.9 million in bonuses IF they submit a "Plan of Reorganization" WITHOUT the sale of the Mortal Kombat franchise. This is the largest bonus for the executives, because it's the most important to Midway to retain and keep the Mortal Kombat franchise as their own if they continue to operate after a reorganization. Thusly, the executives would be rewarded the most for retaining ownership of Mortal Kombat during the reorganization process.

We believe that it is Midway's full intention to reorganize and retain most or all of their intellectual property. Selling off of the Mortal Kombat franchise would only be something they'd look at if they can't possibly reorganize without doing that. To not include this possibility in their bankruptcy filings would be irresponsible, so it does not come as a surprise to us. But it does not mean that Midway is selling it at this time. To say otherwise is simply jumping to conclusions at this point. In fact, development of the Mortal Kombat 9 still continues at this point.

Keep up to date on the Reorganization of Midway Games on their own Reorganization Page where they have put up all the information and news for their investors about the reorganization of the company.

Due to the big news yesterday we decided to push Mortal Movie Monday off to Tuesday this week.

This week's feature presentation is the featurette Behind Mortal Kombat 3: Into The Outworld, which details the creation of Mortal Kombat 3 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 original arcade and home versions. This piece was chosen due to celebrate Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon being selected this week as one of the Hot 100 Game Developers of 2009 by EDGE but also one of the Top 100 Game Creators of all time by IGN.

Behind Mortal Kombat 3: Into The Outworld was a piece of promotional material used to promote the upcoming Mortal Kombat 3. I even remember coming across this on a local Chicago television channel once by accident, I used to have it on VHS somewhere. It was later included along with Midway Arcade Treasures that shipped with Mortal Kombat 3. It's also one of the most in-depth behind the scenes looks into the creation of a Mortal Kombat game.

So for those who haven't seen it yet before, I hope you enjoy a look into the creation of the final traditional 2D Mortal Kombat game.

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Thanks to TRMK forum member, and huge UMK3 fan, Tim Static for the great suggestion. We're still looking for great clips to showcase, so don't forget to suggest us a future video to be featured. Check back next Monday, for another great Mortal Movie Monday feature.

Over the years there has been many great Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter videos, fakes, etc. But personally none are better than the ones done by Proxicide from NewGrounds. To me they serve as a great example of what a true crossover of the series would be close to. So we have decided to run all three of his classic animations for the next three Mortal Movie Monday features.

Proxicide's first of three videos showcases an epic battle between Mortal Kombat 2's Raiden pitted against Ken and Chun Li from Street Fighter. It also features a few cameos from other characters from the Mortal Kombat universe.



Come back next week when Mortal Movie Monday will be featuring Part 2 featuring Scorpion vs Ryu. We're still looking for great clips to showcase, so don't forget to suggest us a future video to be featured.

Over the years there has been many great Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter videos, fakes, etc. But personally none are better than the ones done by Proxicide from NewGrounds. To me they serve as a great example of what a true crossover of the series would be close to. So we have decided to run all three of his classic animations for the next three Mortal Movie Monday features. Last week we brought you Part 1, and this week we present the next battle.

Proxicide's second of three videos showcases an epic battle between Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3's Scorpion and Ryu from Street Fighter. It also features a few cameos from other characters from the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter universes.



Come back next week when Mortal Movie Monday will be featuring Part 3 featuring Akuma vs Chameleon. We're still looking for great clips to showcase, so don't forget to suggest us a future video to be featured.

Over the years there has been many great Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter videos, fakes, etc. But personally none are better than the ones done by Proxicide from NewGrounds. To me they serve as a great example of what a true crossover of the series would be close to. So we have decided to run all three of his classic animations for the next three Mortal Movie Monday features. Previous weeks we brought you Part 1 and Part 2, this week we present the final battle.

Proxicide's final (so far) of three videos showcases an epic battle between Mortal Kombat Trilogy's Chameleon and Akuma from Street Fighter. It is probably the most advanced fight scene out of the three, and really raises the bar on the concept. Because of the long dialog scenes in this episode, we are only embedding the fight scene below. You can watch the whole thing on Newgrounds.



Come back next week when Mortal Movie Monday for another great video. We're always looking for great clips to showcase, so don't forget to suggest us a future video to be featured.

This week Midway has released their latest game, Wheelman. Most of Midway's previous games contain references to it's other titles, and Wheelman is no exception. Right off the bat, in the first scene of the game there is a reference to Mortal Kombat in the form of the license plate for the black Pontiac G8 that the main character Vin Diesel drives. The plates show the words: MRTL KMBT. Watch the following video, taken from the game's demo to see the reference and get a good feeling for how the game plays.



As I went on to learn while playing the game, each brand of car has special plates with the name of various Midway games on them. Actually, all the other Pontiac G8s you see in the game have the plate of "MKV 5DCU" which is an obvious nod to Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. Other example plates are "RMP 8GE" for Rampage and "SP1 HNTR" for Spy Hunter, but there are many many more to be seen and discovered. The game was also produced by long time Mortal Kombat producer Shawn Himmerick, so who knows what else may be buried in the game somewhere. Actually in this behind the scenes video, the development team talks of how they had the sound clip of "Finish Him" play during development during their vehicle combat mode. Maybe it's still there as a secret?

I suggest everyone to go out, download the demo and take it for a spin this week. It's available on both the Playstation Network as well as on the Xbox Live Marketplace. I know I did, which caused me to want to go out and buy the full game the day it came out last week, and have had a good time playing the game so far.

Come back next week when Mortal Movie Monday for another great video. We're always looking for great clips to showcase, so don't forget to suggest us a future video to be featured.