The incentive program seems to be designed to get those 29 people to stick around long enough to get Midway back on something resembling the right track.
- Milestone: Entry into a publishing/distribution agreement for Midway’s new “Wheelman” game (apparently already accomplished), performance by Midway entitling it to gross proceeds of $6 million under the agreement by March 1, 2009, and actual receipt of those proceeds. Bonus Amount: $497,500.
- Milestone: Either (i) execution of an asset purchase agreement for the sale of Midway’s Mortal Kombat franchise assets or (ii) submission by Midway of a plan of reorganization to continue as a going concern. Bonus Amount: $1,292,500.
- Milestone: The earlier to occur of (i) confirmation of a plan of reorganization or liquidation or (ii) closing of a sale of Midway’s Mortal Kombat franchise assets. Bonus Amount: $1,965,000.
It's probably safe to assume that the first milestone was put on track to be met when the company dealt the publishing rights off to Ubisoft. But the other two are a little more interesting, and not just because I'm way more interested in the future of Mortal Kombat than I am in Vin Diesel's upcoming adventure.
It's interesting that MK has become one of the first Midway properties that have come up in a "SELL THIS STUFF" context. I had sort of figured it would end up being one of the last, and that we'd see an IP fire sale with everything from Spy Hunter to Freaky Flyers getting dealt to other interested parties before the fighting series. Because, really, at this point, what is Midway without Mortal Kombat? That's probably why the above milestones have "or" in them. Either Midway needs to sell Mortal Kombat or find a way to reorganize and continue operation. It probably can't do both.
For its part, Midway sounds like it would rather rebuild itself than sell MK. Edge had this to say on the subject:
But Geoff Mogilner, Midway's head of investor relations said in a phone interview, "We're not going out of our way to sell Mortal Kombat." He said Midway may keep its properties instead of selling them off in pieces. "That's management's goal, to keep the company together."
Kotaku points out that the company is making these attempts to pay bonuses while former employees haven't been paid out their back pay. But considering bonus incentives like the ones proposed are probably the only thing keeping Midway's executive team on the job and focused on figuring out some kind of long-term solution, it at least makes some kind of sense. Whether that's a good or bad thing probably depends on your views on the competence of whoever those 29 people are.
So if Mortal Kombat did get dealt, who would pick it up? And do you think they'd bring over any of Midway's current MK team to keep making it?