It's Unreal Engine 3's fault. This is what the former employees of Midway are claiming after the much publicized downspiral of the publishing company. But how did they pinpoint the technology to be the source of their woes? Find out after the jump.

After assigning top-level executives to different assignments, Chicago-based publisher Midway has confirmed what it calls "routine" layoffs in its Austin outpost. Are the two moves tied to each other, or is this part of the company's normal procedures? See details in the full article and decide for yourself.

In the second part of an essay submitted to Outsourced, chief marketing officer of game publisher Midway, Steve Allison began to talk about changes needed in game development, especially in the next generation era. According to him, a game is considered a success if the game itself performs exceptionally well in sales.

In his own words, Allison said, "A great game is one that is a commercial success. Period." According to him, review scores do not reveal the commercial performance of a game. In fact, he states that consumers "review games with their wallet." Allison said that creative games tagged at "$ 59 a pop" don't get to sell a million units unless plenty of people really love the developers' work.

He mentioned in passing that a game's sales potential is strongly within the strength of the game's overall concept and the only difference between the estimate and the final result is the way the game marketing is executed. Probably "picking bones" with game developers and their games that just pass off as visually appealing and realistic, Allison also said:

Sure, your craftsmanship may be amazing. But if your concept is not a powerful and relevant male fantasy, executed in a timely fashion, at a level that delivers on the promise of your core idea, you've probably just delivered the videogame equivalent of an art house film.

In an essay submitted to Outsourced, Midway's chief marketing officer Steve Allison addressed the issues regarding creativity, new intellectual properties and the game industry's manner of marketing games of the new generation. According to Allison, 93% of games developed over new IPs fail.

In fact, he even named gaming gems such as Psychonauts and Shadow of Colossus as "big financial disappointments and money losers," although nothing was mentioned about their own Psi-Ops which fills the same category.

But for a publishing giant safely within the financial "black" because of franchises such as Unreal Tournament, Midway suggests new IP development is what needs reflection, refinement and change.

Allison defended the game industry's lack of creativity by pointing out that the product development staff of each development company always get trapped in the hardcore gamer's mindset. At length, games that were set to attract the avid and average mass market consumer always end up attracting only the core. He also added:

It's really important to understand that our customers on next generation home consoles - Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 - are 90 percent male, and that's not going to change anytime soon. Therefore, the games that have the highest commercial potential are those that provide an outlet for them to live out their alpha male fantasies, to do the things they truly want to do but never could in real life.

But tapping into what the gamers really want is tricky. Surveys and debates never quantify the demand for a certain game concept, according to Allison. In fact, he stresses that game developers should instead look to getting to know their audience and make sure that game concepts are tested and loved by the audiences.