Midway Q4 Losses Rise Nearly $28 Million

Publisher and developer Midway has released the results of its holiday quarter and full year, showing Q4 sales falling to $77.6 million, and losses rising considerably from $2 million in 2006 to $29.7 million, with execs saying the company has "overcome many of [its] technology hurdles" for a "smoother" 2008. 2006 fourth quarter sales were $96.9 million dollars. At the same time, Midway has announed it has dropped its $30 million credit facility with Wells Fargo and taken on a new $90 million line from National Amusements, Midway's parent company chaired by Sumner Redstone, father of Midway chair Shari Redstone. Shari Redstone also acts as National Amusement's president. The company did trumpet the achievement of its Epic co-release of Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and PlayStation 3, which it notes has shipped over a million copies worldwide, and took home a number of awards, as did its The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Full year sales reached $157.2 million, down slightly from the prior year's $165.6 million, with $97.4 million in losses, up from the 2006 losses of $77.8 million. Looking forward to its first quarter ending March 31st, Midway expects sales of $28 million. Company president and CEO David F. Zucker said of the results, "Now that we have overcome many of the technology hurdles that we encountered over the last year, we anticipate smoother launches as we release our strong 2008 line-up." He added, "We expect 2008 to be a significant year for Midway, with more front-line releases than 2007, including some ambitious new intellectual properties with broad market appeal, reinvigorated franchises with well-established fan bases, and some new opportunities in the casual games space with console titles and a new casual games portal. In the near future we expect to reveal more details on our line-up, such as the recent announcement of This Is Vegas."