Midway quashes Newcastle redundancy rumours

Midway has no plans to make any significant changes at its Newcastle, UK studio, other than minor adjustments "in the course of business", according to interim CEO and president Matt Booty.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz recently he explained that Midway had a "very strong commitment to that studio" and that the company was "there for the long term" following indications from sources that redundancies might be on the horizon.

"Newcastle is a very important studio for us, obviously the group that's doing Wheelman - which is a front line important game for us in the first half of 2009," Booty explained. "We just brought in a new studio head, Craig Duncan, formerly with Codemasters, so I think those two things are an indication that we've got a very strong commitment to that studio.

"We've had quite a lot of good hires in the last year to eighteen months at the director level - art director, technical director, audio director - so we're very happy with the leadership of the studio and we currently have acting as executive producer on Wheelman a guy who came up through the ranks on the Mortal Kombat team in the Chicago studio.

"So we're very committed to Newcastle, we've got very strong senior leadership there, and in the course of running a studio, of course there may be changes to some talent - we hire some new people, and let some others go, but only minor in the course of business, nothing to do with any big changes at the studio - we are there for the long term."

The full GamesIndustry.biz interview with Midway's Matt Booty and Martin Speiss is available now.