Midway Games

The company was founded as Midway Manufacturing in 1958 and was known mainly as a developer of pinball machines. In 1969, the company got acquired by Bally Manufacturing Corporation, this acquisition led to their big success in the videogame industry.¹

The start

In 1973 Midway moved into the videogame market developing and publishing arcade games, in 1977 the company entered the consumer market by releasing the Bally Home Library Computer later renamed Bally Astrocade, wich became the only game system to be developed by the company. The game system was discontinued in 1985.¹

The Success

The major success of the company came in 1978, when it established a strong connection with Taito, wich Midway Games to publish some of the most successful games ever like Space Invaders and later Pac-Man (in 1980) and it's unauthorized sequel Ms.Pac-Man in 1981.² In 1981 Bally merged its pinball division with Midway to form the Bally/Midway Manufacturing division and confirmed Midway as the the leading producer of arcade video games in North America.³

In 1988 the Bally/Midway division of Bally was purchased by WMS Industries Inc., wich obtained the right to use the "Bally" brand for its pinball games. Under WMS ownership, Midway initially continued to produce arcade games under the Bally/Midway label, but in 1991 Midway absorbed Williams' videogame division and started making arcades under its name. In 1992, Midway produced The Addams Family pinball, wich became the best selling pinball of all time.

The fall

Despite this leadership in the '70s and '80s, Midway never really entered successfully in the home console market neither as a console manufacturer nor as a video game producer, so with the fell of arcade game's popularity in the '90s and 2000s Midway started to suffer heavy financial losses until they failed for bankruptcy in 2009, selling all their assets after a decade of struggles.