Slashdot Mirror
Atari Arcade Division Closes
Bill Kendrick writes "Today Midway dropped the axe on 'Midway Games West' (Formerly Atari Games Corporation). The remaining 30 people working there have been
laid off. The other half of Atari, who went on to make the Atari ST line of computers and Jaguar and Lynx game systems, is still alive and kicking, as part of Infogrames.
Still, it's a sad day for gamers."
Midway's list of free games include:
T Co ntentServer?pagename=FutureTense/Apps/Xcelerate/Mi dway/Play
- Defender
- Joust
- Rampage
- Spy Hunter
- Robotron 2084
- Tapper
- Defender II
- Bubbles
- Satan's Hollow
- Sinistar
http://www.midway.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+F
pm
** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
When Midway bought Atari Games there was a huge culture clash - Midway was viewed by Atari as a cheap bottom feeder, and Atari was viewed by Midway as an inefficient waster of money (both true to some extent). My opinion is that there were some major disagreements among the Midway corporate level people and the Midway game designers about whether the purchase was a good idea, and that some of those people didn't try very hard to support Atari projects. Just the usual character assasination and not invented here stuff.
I worked at Midway and with Atari people, and I liked most of the people I met there. I think this move just reflects more of the agonizingly slow death spiral that Midway is in right now.
There have been a lot of layoffs and frustration over the years, and I wouldn't be surpirsed that there were cops or private security types - WMS (Midway's ex-parent company) has hired these types before during a production strike. Midway can be pretty paranoid about corporate secrets, but that goes along with the territory.
As for corporate culture at Midway, it's pretty ugly (my opinion). See http://fatbabies.com for a sampling of what some (very opinionated) people think about Midway and other fine outfits in the games industry.
-- All that's left of me, is slight insanity, whats on the right, I don't know. -- Bob Mould
I spent much of my first meager paychecks at Aladdin's Castle in Saginaw, MI, playing Crystal Castles and Gauntlet. There was some later version of Asteroids which i really liked, and wouldn't mind sharing my apartment with one of the full-sized arcade machines. And probably most favorite was Tempest, which I have for the PC. There's a knob for sale which I believe works with it. Best game ever with the sound cranked way up!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I'm not speaking in any official capacity, but let me ask you this... if you were closing off a company filled with valuable equipment, including many $20,000 parts that fit neatly under a winter jacket, would you lay everyone off, then say "now go back to your offices and grab some stuff!!!" -- ?
There's nothing at all strange about how it was handled. When the emotions are high, it's only common sense to work it this way, as there will always be somebody who tries to take advantage of the situation.
Neil, the CEO, flew out to talk to everyone personally. He handled this himself, and he apologized repeatedly, understanding the value that these people place on the old building and the Milpitas area. But that space is huge and costs a ton to keep up, and the projects coming out of there weren't going to help Midway's bottom line much while the economy's in the shape it's in.
Most are being offered jobs in the other Midway studios, and a few are talking about starting their own projects externally.
There wasn't some crazy ape cage full of angry people, ready to explode and tear the place down -- that office had a number of top-notch professionals, and I was frankly floored by some of them when I visited that studio. I'm going to enjoy having some of them in Chicago, and I hope the majority do make their way to the San Diego office as well.