Ex-Midway CEO Booty Becomes Microsoft Mobile Gaming GM

When at GamesCom in Europe Microsoft unveiled its Windows 7 gaming initiatives, it also revealed that former Midway chairman CEO Matt Booty is now helping lead its mobile gaming business as general manager. Booty was called up to preside over Midway in the thick of the complex financial imbroglio that eventually led to the company's demise. In March 2008 he was appointed as interim CEO following the departure of former chief exec David Zucker, a role that became official for Booty in October of that year. Booty had been with Midway since 1991, joining as an engineer and programmer, gradually gaining in responsibility to take the role of VP of product development in 2002 and later, senior VP of Worldwide Studios. The upgrade to CEO couldn't have come at a more challenging time -- alongside mounting debt for primary Midway backer Sumner Redstone in the economic credit crunch, the company's share value had plummeted 67 percent year over year at the time. But in what the company's board said was a credit to Booty's cost reduction and executing on Midway's strategies to stem its nosedive, the former engineer became the company's chairman when Peter Brown resigned in January 2009. Booty was among the casualties of Midway's major Chicago studio closure, and it's unclear exactly how long he's been with Microsoft. But he now has the opportunity to preside over brand-new initiatives at the Xbox house, which he's described as "the launch of a major gaming platform" in Windows Phone 7.