Midway

Founded in 1958 closed in 2010-06-09
Status: dead
Country: USA

7.2

per year

Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included Mortal Kombat, Rampage, Spy Hunter, NBA Jam, Cruis'n, and NFL Blitz. Midway also acquired the rights to video games that were originally developed by Williams Electronics and Atari Games, such as Defender, Joust, Robotron 2084, Gauntlet, and the Rush series.

The company was founded as Midway Manufacturing in 1958, as an amusement game manufacturer. The company was then purchased by Bally Manufacturing in 1969, and used the Bally Midway name in the 1980s. In 1973, Midway moved into the interactive entertainment industry, developing and publishing arcade video games. The company scored its first mainstream hit with the U.S. distribution of Space Invaders in 1978. Bally then merged its pinball division into Midway in 1982. In 1988, Midway was purchased and re-incorporated by WMS Industries, Inc. In 1994, WMS purchased Tradewest to bring home video game market in-house, with it becoming Midway Home Entertainment in 1996, the same year that Midway made its initial public offering of stock. In 1998, WMS spun off its remaining shares of Midway. Midway was ranked the fourth largest-selling video game publisher in 2000.

It is known for Arcade's Greatest Hits, Defender, Doom, Earth 21xx, Gauntlet, Gex series, Micro Machines, Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, Quake, Rampage, Robotron, Shadow Hearts, Spy Hunter

Releases per year

1973	7
1974	5
1975	4
1976	2

1982	1

1984	1

1986	2
1987	1
1988	1

1990	1

1992	1
1993	6
1994	2
1995	7
1996	17
1997	19
1998	14
1999	15
2000	24
2001	17
2002	32
2003	14
2004	5
2005	16
2006	27
2007	11
2008	7

259 video games with valid date were considered (97.3%)

Overall rankings

	10
	92
	52
	16
	1

Common gametypes

Top platforms

Arcade		38
PS2		35
PS		31
GBA		24
Xbox		19
GameCube		17
N64		16
Dreamcast		13
Windows		12
Saturn		8
X360		8
Mega Drive		6
PSP		5
Wii		5
Nintendo DS		5

Midway best rated games

Mortal Kombat 3	1995	ps1
NBA Jam T.E.	1994	gen
Shadow Hearts: Covenant	2004	ps2
Pandemonium 2	1997	ps1
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3	1996	sat
NHL Hitz 20-03	2002	xbox
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks	2005	ps2
NBA Jam	1993	gen
Mortal Kombat	1993	scd
WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game	1995	snes

Midway worst games

Robotron X	1996	ps1
Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1	1996	ps1
Rampage Through Time	2000	ps1
Gravity Games - Bike: street.vert.dirt	2002	ps2
Happy Feet	2006	wii