MIDWAY STRENGTHENS INTERNAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT WITH THE ADDITION OF THREE INDUSTRY LEADERS
Scot Bayless Appointed to Head Chicago Studio
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Denise Fulton Selected to Head New Austin Studio
Emmy-award Nominee Stephan Martinière Named Visual Design Director
CHICAGO - November 15, 2004 - Midway Games Inc. (NYSE: MWY), a leading interactive entertainment software publisher and developer, announced today the appointment of three industry leaders who add significant depth to Midway's internal product development capabilities and are expected to be instrumental in next generation game development. Scot Bayless, former Electronic Arts and Microsoft veteran, will head Midway's Chicago studio. Denise Fulton, former Eidos and Electronic Arts veteran, will head the new Midway Studios-Austin. Stephan Martinière, an award-winning artist and visual designer brings his talents to the position of visual design director at the Chicago studio.
David F. Zucker, Midway's president and chief executive officer, commented on the appointments, "We have made great strides in attracting proven winners to the Midway team over the last year-and-a-half as industry leaders recognize the Company's successes. We're highly confident that Scot, Denise and Stephan's proven creative and management talents will be valuable complements to our internal product development capabilities and important assets as we create even more engaging, best-in-class games for the current and next generation of consoles. All three bring extensive experience and accomplishments from the videogame industry to Midway as well as achievements and recognized performance in other entertainment and software disciplines. As entertainment mediums converge, we expect these broader skills and experience will be invaluable to Midway's product development capabilities."
Scot Bayless, vice president, Chicago studio, joins Midway from Electronic Arts, where he produced the most recent games in the highly popular James Bond 007 franchise and brings an extraordinary range of talents to his new role at Midway. Prior to his work with Electronic Arts, Mr. Bayless served as a studio manager at Microsoft, revitalizing the company's Simulator franchise with reconceptions of Flight Simulator and Combat Flight Simulator and the addition of the successful new title, Train Simulator. In addition to his videogame software expertise, he has managed PC and console technologies, military engineer technology and feature film extensions.
Denise Fulton, Studio Head, Midway Studios-Austin, was most recently at Ion Storm where she served as the company's executive producer, managing the production teams on Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows. Ms. Fulton began her career in the videogame industry at Microsoft as a graphic designer, and then moved into a management role, supervising internal and external teams in the production of several children's software titles. She then moved to DreamWorks Interactive, where she built a PC production group and was responsible for the hiring and training of a team of managers, artists, programmers and designers. Following her term at DreamWorks, Ms. Fulton joined Electronic Arts Canada, where she spent four years as a producer and senior development director.
Stephan Martinière, visual design director at Midway's Chicago studio, comes to Midway from Cyan, Inc. where he was the visual art director for the hit videogame, Myst. Mr. Martinière has over 20 years of acclaimed industry experience and worldwide recognition for his talent and artistic successes across many artistic mediums. In addition to his visual contribution to Myst, Mr. Martinière has garnered awards and critical acclaim for his work in feature films such as Star Wars Episodes II and III, The Fifth Element, and most recently I, Robot, as well as for his work in animated television and book cover illustration. He has received an Emmy Award nomination for his art animation and his success in book illustrations garnered him Spectrum Awards in 1997 and 2004. Additionally, Mr. Martinière won the 2001 Thea Award for his work on the Paramount theme park attraction, Super Saturator and in May, 2004, Infinitee Designs awarded Mr. Martinière the Artist of the Month award for Para.
All three new appointments will begin their assignments in Midway's internal product development organization this month.
About Midway Games Inc.
Midway Games Inc. is a leading developer, publisher and marketer of interactive entertainment software. Midway videogames are available for play on all major videogame platforms including the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Xbox, Nintendo GameCubeTM and Game Boy® Advance.
For more information about Midway Games visit www.midway.com.
Emmy is a trademark of ATAS/NATAS. 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 Contact:
Phil Robinson
PR Manager
Midway Games Ltd
+44 207 382 7720
Mathew Huband
European Product Manager
+44 207 382 7720
James Beaven
Indigo Pearl
+44 208 964 4545