Steven Pick, senior GUI artist for Midway Newcastle's Wheelman, gives a painful blow-by-blow of the studio's final days. From the start up on cop drama Necessary Force to its multiple, failed pitches to numerous studios to the final visit Midway CEO Matt Booty, himself axed not long after giving last rites to Midway Newcastle.

Pick doesn't offer a great deal of hope for Necessary Force to ultimately see release, but does touch on the positive impact the in-development open world game had on Midway Newcastle, even if it didn't save the developer. At this point, only UK outlet Edge has seen Necessary Force in action, outside of the development team and a few unnamed publishers.

Hopefully we haven't seen the last of it. It looked interesting—small things, like Necessary Force's moral choices affecting the weather and time of day, for example—if a bit familiar.

I'd highly recommend reading Pick's account of the last days of Midway Newcastle. He paints a sobering picture of the developer's demise, one very humanizing and informative.

Midway Newcastle R.I.P. [Embittered Mutterings]

"We can confirm we closed the Newcastle studio this morning, our time," said Geoffrey Mogilner, Midway spokesman. "During the notification period we were actively searching for bidders, and since we didn't find any unfortunately it was necessary to close it down.

"We tried really hard to find a solution for the Newcastle studio."

Midway CEO Matt Booty traveled to the studio to make the announcement in person to the roughly 80 people let go, Mogilner said. The announcement of the closure came at the end of the notification time required by UK law.

While the Wheelman IP is now owned by Warner Brothers Interactive, along with the Midway trademark and games such as Mortal Kombat and This is Vegas, no one has yet purchased Necessary Force, Mogilner said.

Under California law, Midway's San Diego studio still has until September to find a buyer.

"We are still hoping to find a buyer for the studio," Mogilner said.

So Midway Newcastle, developers of the coolly received Vin Diesel vehicle Wheelman, is looking for a buyer, pitching its originally developed intellectual property Necessary Force along with it. The developer is trying to drum up interest by launching a web site promoting the game, highlighting the game's art style and Necessary Force's rugged detective who plays by his own rules.

Necessary Force looks to expand upon the foundation built for Wheelman, with studio head Craig Duncan telling Develop that the team has "about 35 man years of tech on top of base Unreal [Engine]" and an already playable game on their hands.

The in-development open world action game's trailer shows no gameplay, but does show some interesting facets of the title. It looks like there will be a changing city, as the trailer showcases a dilapidated building transforming from rundown slum to sleek apartment. It also shows off a little torture—or coercion tactics, if you prefer.

According to Duncan, there's publisher interest in Necessary Force, but a lack of money. "The whole industry is struggling, really," he tells Develop.

Of course, considering that Midway's big investment in these big budget and massive open world action games like Wheelman, This Is Vegas and Stranglehold are partly to blame for its current financial woes, one may be able to understand a publisher's hesitance to sign on. But we obviously wish them the best of luck.

Midway Newcastle reveals new IP as it seeks buyer [Develop]
Necessary Force [Official Site]

Variety reports that Paramount Pictures, fresh off the buzz surrounding Fast & Furious, "is accelerating its efforts" to get the movie made, with John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) to direct and Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers, Doom) to produce. Diesel will obviously star.

Strange decision to make, especially when the original plans for the movie went up in smoke, and that Wheelman (the game) wasn't much of a game. Then again, it's always sounded like a better movie.

Vin Diesel to star in 'Wheelman' [Variety]

Available today on the Xbox 360 and May 7th for the PlayStation 3, the new downloadable content for Wheelman consists of the Free Street Showdown Pack and Premium Street Showdown Pack, and it looks like you get what you pay for. The free pack includes one new showdown mission for the game: Showdown in Avinguda Del Paral-lel. The premium pack comes with five: Showdown in Museu Nacional, Showdown in Passeig De Gracia, Showdown in Grand Theatre De Liceu, Showdown in Cathedral De La Seu, and Showdown in Placa De Catalunya.

The premium pack will set you back 400 Microsoft points or $4.99 in PlayStation 3 real money. $5 for a gallon of Diesel? That's insane.

But Midway has since altered the deal, submitting a revised version to the courts to address concerns about the proposed $3.75 million in payouts going to 29 employees. One of the alterations to Midway's "Key Employee Incentive Program" was the exclusion of CEO Matt Booty from eligibility of those payouts, reducing the number of folks who could potentially benefit to 28.

According to Midway reps, this isn't just a windfall opportunity for the publisher's suits. "The majority of the people in here are the rank and file [product development] guys," the kind of people potential buyers or employers might want to keep.

Midway also removed the mention of Wheelman from the deal.

The Vin Diesel-starring game, which has been released as part of a deal between Ubisoft and Midway, was attached to a bonus incentive that creditors and the trusted found unsavory. That's because the deal had already happened quite some time ago, meaning folks would've have gotten paid under the arrangement for something that was a done deal.

Mention of Mortal Kombat has also been removed from the agreement, as it's logically the most attractive, possibly least tarnished of Midway's properties. The milestone previously attached to the sale of Mortal Kombat has been altered to include the company's assets—possibly all of them—to the tune of a committee approved "target cash amount."

That means someone may have to snap up rights to Narc, Smash TV and Area 51 for certain bonuses to be paid out. Not implying that Smash TV rights would be a bad thing, just likely unprofitable unless in the right hands.

In an interview with Play.tm, Simon Woodroffe of Midway Newcastle said his team is pressing on under the assumption that what it builds will be published - as Wheelman was, although Ubisoft came in to take the title to market once Midway hit bankruptcy last year. Woodroffe is the lead designer and creative director on the next effort, which he'll only describe as "open-world for sure."

"We need to build on the technology we've used in Wheelman," he said, calling Wheelman a building block in the studio's goal of becoming "genuinely competitive with the big open-world games. ... You can't do that in one iteration, you have to take steps. We'll build our skills gradually. Hopefully what we offer in Wheelman is something a bit different."

He's not sure, or wouldn't say, if Ubisoft will continue to publish Midway-developed titles. But he did comment on the last-minute relationship with Ubi and Wheelman. "They'll do a great job of bringing this game to market. Its a new IP. Ubisoft will deal with any negative connotations well. As a designer you want as many people as possible to play your game, if this helps that then great. They're a great company with quality products."

Simon Woodroffe on Wheelman and Beyond [Play.tm]

And it's a lovely shaved head, to be sure. It just tickles me to no end that this season is going to see the release of not one but two titles featuring extensive screen time for the back of actor Vin Diesel's head. It's even better when you realize that Wheelman is coming out March 24th, and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is due on April 7th, giving us exactly two weeks to tire of Vin's contemporary head before we start staring at his future one.

It's the little things that amuse me.

Okay, at this point I don't know if there is any barrel rolling involved, but there'll be plenty of driving, shooting, driving while shooting, and shooting while driving as you get a small taste of the Wheelman story, along with 2 of the 105 side missions that will ship with the final product.

I don't have particularly high hopes for Wheelman, though it's always a good sign when they feel confident enough to release a demo two weeks before the game comes out. Who knows? Maybe I'll make a new friend today.

Demo: Wheelman [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

What can't virtual Vin Diesel do? He escapes from space prisons, engages in mech combat, and now he rides a motorcycle through a subway in order to recover important documents. See, Wheelman isn't just about cars. When you think about it, the title could cover anything with wheels, so as exciting as this whole motorcycle chase scene is, it's nowhere near as impressive as the downhill baby-carriage shootout playing out in my head right now.

A set of three new car-centric screens can be found below, in case the whole motorcycle gunfight concept just blows your mind and you need some grounding.

Interviewed by This Xbox Life, Himmerick - who served as Executive Producer on the upcoming Wheelman - speaks at length on the topic:

The politically incorrect answer is that the PS3 is a huge pain in the ass. Anyone making a game, if you're going to make it for both [360 and PS3], just lead on the PS3 because if it works on the PS3 it'll work on 360.

The easiest way to look at it is, the 360 has one big chunk of memory, but the PS3 has two chunks of memory that in total are the same size as the Xbox, but because they're split you can't share memory the same way. That will bite you in the ass, and it bit us in the ass bad.

We had to play catch up on the PS3 because of the memory constraints and how it renders, how it processes is just different. And it's harder on the PS3. The Xbox is just like a dumb PC, which is great because it's easier to build a game on a PC.

Nice, simple, to the point. Just the way we like it.

This Xbox Life Podcast Episode 27 - Wheelman [This Xbox Life, via D+Pad]

Under the terms of the deal Ubisoft will market, distribute and sell the game while Midway will continue developing it. The game, which will be getting a pre-launch demo for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, is scheduled for a release in North America on March 24 and March 27 in Europe.

Ubisoft will handle sales, marketing, and distribution of the title in North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Midway will continue to direct the development of the title and retains all future rights to the franchise and will sell the title in all other European territories.

"We are pleased to be partnering with Midway to bring Wheelman to stores worldwide," said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Ubisoft. "The cutting edge open-world driving technology in Wheelman should make for an experience that gamers will enjoy."

"Ubisoft's decision to join Midway in a co-publishing agreement is a gratifying validation of Wheelman's potential," commented Matt Booty, president and CEO, Midway. "Ubisoft has a proven expertise at bringing new IP to market, which will allow us to reach a broader consumer segment with Wheelman, while helping Midway to balance the risk profile of our product portfolio."

"The development team in Newcastle, UK, has fine-tuned and polished Wheelman, especially in these last few months, to deliver a true Hollywood blockbuster experience," said Craig Duncan, studio head, Midway Studios – Newcastle Ltd. "The demo due out for Xbox 360 and PS3 will show that Wheelman's new game design mechanics like cinematic super moves and vehicular combat will revolutionize driving games."

The deal comes to light just a few days after a federal bankruptcy court gave Midway the go ahead to continue spending money as they try to work their way out of quite a massive amount of debt.

Could this be the first step toward Ubisoft taking on more outside projects as a publisher? Is there an Ubisoft Partners in our near future?

We'd learned from a source last week that the game was planned to change publishers, with an announcement from Ubisoft expected shortly. Just recently, we'd been told by other sources at retail that outstanding orders for the game had been put on hold, with expectations that Wheelman would be re-solicited, delayed, and reappear as a Ubisoft game.

Whether Wheelman would be re-branded as part of the Driver series, the rights of which Ubisoft purchased from publisher Atari in 2006 is unknown. Given the extensive marketing Midway has put behind the Midway Newcastle and Tigon Studios developed title, it might seem like an odd fit, but could potentially benefit from the long-running Driver brand.

Retailers worldwide are currently showing the game's release date as March 20th, the most recent date provided by Midway after a series of delays.

When contacted, Midway representatives had a firm "No comment." Reps said that the company is currently focused on its financial issues and working through its bankruptcy reorganization. We've contacted Ubisoft and are currently awaiting a response.

As Midway wouldn't provide official comment and retailer listings show no change, we're calling the change of publisher rumor for now.

UPDATE - Retailer listings are indeed now showing the change. GameFly's listing for the title now shows Ubisoft, not Midway, as the game's publisher with a release date "TBD."

The better news for fans of Mr. Diesel and open-world driving games is that a pre-release demo of Wheelman will be hitting Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. When? We're not sure exactly, but will put a solid guesstimate on March 19th or earlier.

Publisher Midway also wants to let you know, that, should you have made it this far into the post, the Wheelman web site is flush with new content. Who doesn't love content?!

Wheelman [Official Site]

Man, if we were calling the shots around Midway, there'd be a decapitated Scorpion atop a gore covered snowman or the contestants from Smash TV putting a star on top of a Christmas tree shaped pile of cash with little Mutoid Man stockings in the background. Yes, you've got a game to promote — pre-order Wheelman now, shipping February 20th for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system! — but a little old-school goes a long way.

Okay, the cheestastic tagline "The snow is his battlefield. His sleigh is his weapon." goes a long way too, but you get what I'm sayin'.

Just a couple things to think about next year Midway marketing department. You have my address.

In an interview with Videogamer.com, Woodroffe cites two titles, both of which aren't slated for release until sometime in 2010, and says the publisher now has a large enough pool of developers to draw upon and share knowledge with in order to finally deliver high-end experiences.

"I just saw a demo of a new Midway game that's in development. I can't tell you too much about it, but they've been on it for three months and it looks as good if not better than Gears 2," said Woodroffe. "This is only possible because of the sharing of technology."

Woodroffe would go on to say that, even in demo form, said game is up to Gears 2 standards already.

"It's already looking as good as Gears 2, but the game mechanics are kind of different. It's going to be really big and really important," Woodroffe explained. "It's not often, especially when you're a cynical type, that you see a prototype or creative slice and just get blown away by it. But in this case, the hype is justified."

The only remaining question is whether or not either of Midway's upcoming titles will look as good if not better than God of War 3.

FIGHT!

Midway: Secret game looks 'better' than Gears 2 (Videogamer)

“We’re designing Wheelman to play like a Hollywood blockbuster,” said Vin Diesel, Wheelman star and executive producer, Tigon Studios. “Playing this game will be just like taking control of the greatest car chases from feature films, except this time you’re in the driver’s seat.”

Think of it like the Transporter series of films, only instead of starring a physically fit bald man who talks funny, it...nevermind.

Midway Confirms February 16, 2009, Scheduled as Global Ship Date for Wheelman™

Action-Packed Open-World Driving Game Featuring Vin Diesel Expected To Be Available On Store Shelves by Feb. 20 In North America and Europe

CHICAGO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Midway Games Inc. (NYSE: MWY), a leading interactive entertainment software publisher and developer, today announced a planned global ship date of February 16, 2009, for Wheelman™, the upcoming open-world driving game starring action-film megastar Vin Diesel as an expert driver for hire. Set in picturesque Barcelona, the game is scheduled to be available in stores everywhere by February 20, 2009, for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and personal computers.

Co-produced by Vin Diesel and created in close partnership with Diesel’s video game production company Tigon Studios, Wheelman is being developed by Midway Studios - Newcastle Ltd., a Midway internal studio that has assembled an international world-class team fusing proven industry veterans with a AAA track record and future emerging talent focused on creating high quality, best-in-breed gaming experiences.

“We’re designing Wheelman to play like a Hollywood blockbuster,” said Vin Diesel, Wheelman star and executive producer, Tigon Studios. “Playing this game will be just like taking control of the greatest car chases from feature films, except this time you’re in the driver’s seat.”

“Featuring Vin Diesel and set in Barcelona, Wheelman is a title with enormous sales potential ,” said Martin Spiess, executive vice president, international of Midway Games Ltd. “We’re making a multi-million dollar marketing investment to make sure that gamers around the world are ready when Wheelman goes on sale worldwide, which we have planned for February 2009.”

Midway is working closely with Vin Diesel and Tigon Studios to create an all-new property that is expected to eventually lead to a feature film, with a script that is already in development.

“This is not just another run-of-the-mill, licensed Hollywood knock-off,” said Matt Booty, president and CEO, Midway. “Wheelman features revolutionary new game design mechanics like cinematic super moves and vehicular combat. Once you experience Wheelman’s Vehicle Melee, you’ll never want to play another driving game without it!”

Vehicle Melee allows gamers to sideswipe pursuing enemies with a simple flick of the joystick Wheelman’s devastating “slam-n-ram” maneuvers can be carried out in all directions, just like you’d see in a Hollywood-style car chase.

Inspired by Hollywood’s most famous action-sequences, Wheelman will deliver powerful cinematic moments throughout the game’s compelling storyline.

For the most up-to-date information, screens and trailers for Wheelman, log onto www.wheelmangame.com,

About Wheelman

Action film megastar Vin Diesel and his Tigon Studios are again blurring the lines between entertainment mediums, this time collaborating with Midway in the design and production of Wheelman to ensure an edge-of- your-seat gaming experience. Diesel’s voice and likeness will appear as the game’s main character, expert Wheelman Milo Burik.

Combining spectacular Hollywood-style stunts with a gripping storyline, Wheelman provides an adrenaline-fueled, cinematic thrill ride guaranteed to leave you breathless. Vin Diesel stars as an undercover agent and highly skilled driver who must infiltrate the Barcelona underworld to gather intelligence surrounding a covert heist. Posing as a driver-for-hire, he ends up caught in a crossfire of corruption and chaos while trying to stay one step ahead of local law enforcement and rival gangs.

As the title implies, there’s a lot of driving in this game. About 80% of it is you in a car holding down the right trigger button (or as I like to call it, the “go” button). The other 20%, you’ll be on foot. I didn’t get to see any ‘on foot’ gameplay, but I imagine you’ll be doing the same thing when you’re in the car. Shooting and fleeing. The overall graphics are good - the cars obviously look better than anything else in the game - but there were a few cases when the frame-rate did drop. Nothing horrible, mind you, but lets see if the delay helps the team polish that up.

The first ‘mission’ when you start the game off is basically one, long high-speed chase through the city of Barcelona trying to evade cops and roadblocks. Only after you complete this first mission will the city then open up for you to explore. It’s actually a long level. I didn’t get to see just how big the city was, unfortunately.

I’ve seen some footage of this game a little while back, so I knew about some of the features going into the demo. You can use the right analog stick to swing your car at nearby vehicles to take them out. It’s kind of odd, and physically impossible I think, but it worked. Also, as you drive well and make all kinds of sweet drifts, a gauge fills up that you can later use to perform ‘cyclones’ which help kill enemies in bullet-time fashion as you car is doing donuts in the street.

The main story of Wheelman can be completed in about eight to ten hours, but there are a lot of side missions for you to try out once you get through that. 105 in fact. According to the Midway rep, they haven’t actually QA tested the entire game start to finish, so they have no idea how long the game is if you do everything. But he said to expect it to be around 20-25 hours total.

You can also hijack other cars without ever having to actually stop the car you’re currently in. Vin’s character can leap from vehicle to vehicle until you find something you like. This can come in handy, particularly when you’re car is badly damaged. It helps keep the speed of the game going, too.

The game seems really arcade-y, and still needs a bit of work before it's out the door, so let’s see how extra dev time can help it out. Now, who’s going to see Wheelman The Movie? Anybody?

"Step inside the world of the original wheelman in this revived classic from Ubisoft Reflections," says the publisher. "Driver for the original PlayStation was a huge hit on the original PlayStation and remains a classic. Soon you can relive those gaming memories, or enjoy it for the first time, on PSN for PlayStation 3."

"The original wheelman"? Ouch. Yours might be the original, but does it have Vin Diesel? Is that even a selling point anymore?

Driver skids onto PSN Aug. 14 [CVG]