What do you think Midway's fate will be?

[Dodece]

Midway lacks the innovative forethought to work their way out of this predicament. They will do what every expired developer has done. They will return to the river that has run dry, and will try to eek out a living. There comes a time when you have to abandon the familiar and make a move to fresh territories. Waiting too long to do so is a death sentence, because by the time panic sets in you no longer have the resources to make bold moves.

What Midway needs to do is create new intellectual properties, and retire their tried properties. They need to move towards new territories in gaming. When you are not top dog, and you do not have the resources it is suicide to try and do what the other guy is doing.

What Midway needs to do is move away from fighters, shooters, and racers. They need to find a genre unpopulated that still has potential for hardcore appeal. Plus they need a genre that doesn't deplete coffers. While some may say games for Live and its like. The reality is that a large developer cannot possibly survive on that alone. Low cost yes but also low return. That is like emptying a sinking boat with a tea cup. They need something revolutionary and fresh that can bring in a good chunk of cash.

To me I think Midway would do well with a space shooter. There just are not a lot of games in the genre. Which means little competition, the nature of the genre means low development costs, and the genre has some real success stories. That is what they need a space shooter with up to sixteen player online support. There is good money to be made there.

Other good genres for Midway would be social interaction games, exploration games, environment simulators, and collection games. All of which are cheap to produce, but are so under represented in the market that when they do show up they rake in the cash. Look at titles like Animal Crossing, Endless Ocean, Myst, and Pokemon. All have low overhead, but massive profit potential.

Midway needs to be looking to these genres for salvation, because if they keep trying to compete with the big boys in the crowded genres they are going to eventually be crushed out of the market.