Midway Acquires Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks Developer

Officials from publisher Midway Games have announced that the company has acquired Austin, Texas developer Paradox Development. The developer is currently working on Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks for the company and has previously developed other beat 'em-up titles such as X-Men: Mutant Academy, Backyard Wrestling, Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style and the infamously unreleased PlayStation game Thrill Kill. Midway acquired the privately held developer in an all-stock transaction for 333,334 Midway common shares. In addition a total of 261,906 restricted shares of Midway common stock were issued to key Paradox employees as retention incentives. The restrictions on the stock will lapse in stages over a period of three years, provided the employees remains at the company. This marks the third acquisition in recent months, after fellow developers Inevitable Entertainment (also based in Austin, Texas) and Surreal Software. After being acquired, Inevitable Entertainment was renamed as Midway Studios – Austin and the company has made it clear that Paradox will form a second independent team at the same studio. Midway president and CEO David F. Zucker commented, "In acquiring Paradox Development, we have added a talented and established developer that not only deepens our internal product development organization but also brings incremental fighting-genre expertise to Midway. We have made great strides in improving our overall quality of games, and the industry and our customers have recognized this accomplishment. Today's acquisition further strengthens our ability to expand on our current portfolio of games and produce new high quality, top-selling games for the future. "