Midway Tackles Mature-Themed Football With BLITZ®: The League™
New Football Game to Feature Level of Intensity Not Found in Licensed Sports Products
CHICAGO - February 22, 2005 - Midway Games Inc. (NYSE: MWY), a leading interactive entertainment software publisher and developer, announced today the development of Blitz: The League, a new, unlicensed videogame exposing the harsh realism and troubling, behind-the-scenes stories of a fictional professional football league. Blitz: The League has been in development at Midway's Chicago studio for the past year in collaboration with a writer from ESPN's controversial "Playmakers" TV series. Blitz: The League goes behind the glitz and glamour of the game through a revolutionary campaign mode that explores the on-field violence, off-field fallout and front-office politics of professional football. Blitz: The League is scheduled for release Winter 2005 on multiple videogame console platforms.
"Midway's Chicago studio has laid the foundation over the past year for what is the ultimate alternative to watered down NFL sanctioned football games," said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. "No longer bound to the NFL license, there will be no league restrictions on content and gamers will finally experience what makes playing a football videogame really fun: off-field controversies, dirty hits, excessive celebrations and much more. Blitz: The League buyers will be assured of one thing - our game will include all the gameplay and fun the NFL won't allow."
About Blitz: The League
Blitz: The League will feature a powerful story mode that, for the first time ever in a football videogame, explores the realism, lifestyle and drama found in professional football. Players will take the helm of a downtrodden football franchise and retool the players and coaching staff in a quest to guide them to the league championship. Additional features include intense multiplayer action with head-to head online play and complete customization of players, teams, stadiums and more.
About Midway Games Inc.
Headquartered in Chicago, IL with offices in San Diego, CA, Seattle, WA, Austin, TX , Los Angeles, CA, and London, UK, Midway Games Inc. (NYSE: MWY) is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for all major video game systems. More information about Midway can be obtained at www.midway.com.
BLITZ is a trademark of Midway Amusement Games, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.
This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning future business conditions and the outlook for Midway Games Inc. (the "Company") based on currently available information that involve risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, the financial strength of the interactive entertainment industry, dependence on new product introductions and the ability to maintain the scheduling of such introductions, the upcoming console platform transition and other technological changes, dependence on major platform manufacturers and other risks more fully described under "Item 1. Business - Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003, and in the more recent filings made by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
For More Information
Tim DaRosa
Midway - Media Relations
773-961-2445
Chris Kooluris
HighWater Group PR
212-338-0077 ext. 313