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.

After the recent series of shakedowns happening in Midway, word has been going around that the company may have to shut down its UK based studio Newcastle, subsequently putting development of its upcoming action shooter - The Wheelman (PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) - on hold. However, interim CEO Matt Booty squashed these unfounded rumors and confirmed that they had no plans of doing so. More details in our full article.

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.

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.