It's official. Wheelman developer Midway Newcastle has been shut down following failed efforts to find a buyer before the end of the notification time required by UK law. The announcement was made at the studio by Midway CEO Matt Booty in front of the 80 or so people who had to be let go.

So is Midway really going under or what? Despite announcing a new Mortal Kombat game and managing to buy time to avoid bankruptcy, the company may be back in hot water. Midway chairman - uh, now ex-chairman, I mean - Peter C. Brown has resigned from his post in the company.

Midway has announced that they'll be canceling a number of licensed titles in favor of focusing on what they called their "core properties." No word on exactly which games are getting the axe but ones tied in with strong licenses like DC Comics and TNA Wrestling appear to be safe, thankfully.

It's always a bit daunting (in a good way) to see the quarterly financial figures of your favorite gaming company, and it's the same here, as Midway Games has just posted its numbers for the first quarter of 2008. Sure, they're still losing quite a bit of money, but they're also making quite the killing when compared to previous quarters. In any case, all the numbers, facts, and figures after the jump. Bring your own calculators.

There's a lot going on in the videogames industry, corporate-wise, and it seems that Midway is also joining the fray - with none other than CEO Matt Booty talking about how the publisher famous for the Mortal Kombat series might possibly be joining Viacom. Interested? Then check out all the details in the full article, and see what it means to you as well as the industry in general.

After releasing Mortal Kombat Armageddon for the Wii and Touchmaster for the DS, Midway is looking to strengthen the Nintendo front with five titles this November. The games look to be targeting varied types of gamers which should give the Midway a very good spread in terms of market coverage.

First up we have two games for the Nintendo Wii. Cruisi'n, which we reported on before, has already been confirmed and is joined by Game Party.

I'd like to direct your attention to Game Party which appears to be Midway's stab into the casual gaming market. The game has been described as "a collection of classic skill games from around the world, from American sports venues to European gathering spots."

For the DS we have Ultimate Mortal Kombat, Foster's Home for Imaginary Parents, and The Bee Game. The latter two seem to be geared towards a younger audience while Ultimate Mortal Kombat is essentially Puzzle Fighter with a Mortal Kombat spin.

Midway's executive vice president of worldwide studios Matt Booty spoke on this apparent move by the company to strengthen their Nintendo console lineup:

The Wii and Nintendo DS require games that are innovative and take full advantage of a unique control scheme to offer a truly different type of gameplay experience.

We are very excited to be bringing classic Midway franchises such as Mortal Kombat and Cruis’n along with powerful licensed content like Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends to the massive installed base of Nintendo system owners.

The senior vice president for marketing and corporate communications of Nintendo of America Inc. George Harrison shared the same vision saying:

Nintendo is very excited to be working with Midway to have these great brands and new products come exclusively to Wii and Nintendo DS. These new games paired with the unique controls of Wii and Nintendo DS will continue to expand videogames to new audiences

So it looks like Christmas is coming a little early for gamers everywhere with multiple games arriving this November. Old and young gamers alike will probably enjoy the new offerings from Midway.

In line with the success Midway Games has been receiving with hits like Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the company receives another batch of good news by way of Matt Booty.

Midway's worldwide studios senior VP was happy to announce they will now be centralizing all their outsourcing work to the Central Outsourcing Group (COG), of which Midway's Austin studio would be taking the helm.

“Consolidating all product development outsourcing initiatives into a centralized group will allow Midway to focus on creating AAA next-generation content,” Matt said in light of the move. Going into detail, he explained that COG "will provide expertise in outsourcing management and development pipelines across all of our internal studios.” This announcement also comes in light of their recent financial reports, which also details on a new MK game in the works.