Ever-struggling publisher Midway today posted a whopping net loss of $34 million across the first quarter of its 2008 fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2008. The company has not posted an annual profit since 1999.

During that same time frame, Midway amassed $29.9 million in revenue, a figure that actually surpassed expectations of $28 million. In the same period last year, it only pulled in $11.1 million.

Of the company's $29.9 million revenue, 45.8% was attributed PlayStation 3 software, such as Epic's Unreal Tournament 3. Wii software, including Game Party and Cruis'n, accounted for 36% of its overall revenue, with Xbox 360 games representing 5.7% and PC titles making up 2.8% of that figure.

As it looks ahead to the road towards profitability, Midway expects similar losses for its second quarter. However, the company is optimistic for the performance of its 2008 lineup, which includes Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, This Is Vegas, Wheelman, and the Xbox 360 edition of Unreal Tournament 3.

The Mortal Kombat franchise will be returning later this year in the form of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (PS3, X360), publisher Midway announced today. A trailer featuring Sub-Zero and Batman has been released to go along with the announcement. More information will be available later today here at Shacknews.

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Publisher Midway Games today announced two executive promotions within its corporate structure, naming Miguel Iribarren as senior VP of publishing and Martin Speiss as international executive vice president.

Irabarren joined the company in 2002, and most recently served as the company's vice president of publishing. Speiss joined Midway as managing director for Midway Games' Europe division in 2005.

"Both Miguel and Martin are proven executives and will be key to putting Midway back on the path to profitability," said Midway interim CEO Matt Booty. "With... Read more

Publisher Eidos has announced that a reimagining of Midway's classic cooperative arcade title Gauntlet is headed to the Nintendo DS this fall, courtesy of developer Backbone Entertainment.

Supporting online play and voice chat for up to four players, the game features four different character classes: Elf, Warrior, Wizard and Valkyrie. Multiplayer modes include deathmatch, team deathmactch, and treasure hoarde game types.

"With Gauntlet we've revitalised all of the action and fun of the original 1980s arcade classic, whilst updating the visuals and gameplay for today's DS gamer," said Eidos brand manager Ray Livingston. "With four-player Wi-Fi cooperative mode, one of the most memorable multiplayer gaming experiences of all time is back with a bang."

Midway has revealed that Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 3 (PC, PS3) and Midway Chicago's Stranglehold (PC, PS3, X360) have sold over a million copies worldwide.

The milestone was announced by Midway CEO David Zucker in a recent conference call. Sales milestones for both titles account for copies sold across multiple territories on several platforms.

Zelnick noted that while it may seem as though the PC gaming market is slowing, international PC sales continues to be strong in a number of markets.

"As we expected, our European PC sales of Unreal Tournament 3 are outpacing North America and, overall, the title is turning out to a success," Zucker added. "Later this year we are scheduled to launch the Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament 3 and expect it to perform equally well."

The CEO went on to say that Pipeworks Software's Rampage: Total Destruction (Wii), originally released in 2006, also broke the one million milestone.

It came out late last year that Eidos-parent company SCi was open to the possibility of a merger. For the second time in recent years, Midway has now entered talks with SCi as a merger candidate, according to Next-Gen.

The two companies began courting initially in 2003 after CEO David Zucker arrived at Midway. Next-Gen claims a source "within a major game publisher" informed them of the merger talks.

London-based game publisher SCi owns Eidos, known for publishing the Tomb Raider and Hitman series of video games among others. Chicago-headquartered Midway publishes and internally develops titles like BlackSite: Area 51 (PC, PS3, X360) and John Woo's Stranglehold (PC, PS3, X360).

Shacknews contacted both Eidos and Midway for comment, but has not yet received a response.

According to Midway senior VP and chief marketing officer Steve Allison, only 7% of the new game-related intellectual properties introduced across the past four years can be considered successful and review scores had no bearing on the sales of those games. "In other words, 93 percent of new IP fails in the marketplace," he explained on N'Gai Croal's Level Up. "So while the 90-plus review scores and armfuls of awards create the perception that titles like Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami and other great pieces of work were big successes...they were big financial disappointments and money losers."

"The truth is that there is no correlation between review scores and ... Read more

Midway has announced it has snapped up the North American publishing rights to Earth 2160, the sci-fi strategy game from Reality Pump Studios. The game will be released in the U.S. and Canada this November.