Twitch Calls On Readers To Boycott Midway Games and John Woo's Stranglehold.

I like Midway games and this doesn't seem to be such a big reason to boycot them, really. From what I've read something fishy was in the deal, maybe, so Midway just decided to walk away from it. The festival organisers should have had better policy.

Something fishy in the deal? Like what, exactly? And where did you read this?

Here's what happened: Midway agreed to pay a sizable amount of money to become the title sponsors of the festival. NYAFF accepted their offer and terms and proceeded according to the deal, labelling Midway the title sponsor in every press release, in the print materials they were preparing, in absolutely every festival material released so far. I know because I get all of their festival stuff and Midway was everywhere in it. NYAFF was prepping their theaters to house game concoles so festival customers could try out Stranglehold at the festival, as per the agreement, when Midway simply bailed.

They didn't call, they offered no explanation, they offered no apology. They didn't have the basic courtesy to even tell NYAFF that they wanted out of the deal, they just didn't bother to show up one day. That's incredibly low class.

NYAFF did everything you're supposed to do for a sponsor - absolutely everything - and Midway just pissed off for no reason, with no warning, and left them with a budget shortfall in the tens of thousands of dollars with less than a month to go before the festival launch. The festival's policy and behavior were perfectly fine, the only mistake they made was trusting Midway who have turned out to be completely untrustworthy.

Wow, that sucks. I would join the Boycot but I don't buy MIdway games anyway, I havne't enjoyed one since Pacman...

But it seems unfair to punish John Woo casue midway sucks.

digged & spreaded the hate to other boards :)

Sue them??????

Midway sucks anyway. There doesn't even need to be a boycott because everyone already doesn't buy their games, haha. That's why they did this, they don't make much money.

When were these guys gonna get paid by Midway? I admit to not knowing anything about this business crap but it seems naive to make investments in the tens of thousands of dollars without having been paid by your sponsor in advance.

That's pretty weak sauce on Midway's part. Shame too, the game looked alright.

Gezz, I feel really bad for the guys at NYAFF. Couldn't they get Midway to legally compensate their losses for breach of contract?

Boycotting is child's play, I'm gonna pirate and upload Stranglehold the torrent for everyone to download for free!

I'll rob Midway of thousands $$$$ hahaha

You would have done that anyway.

John Woo's a really really REALLY nice guy. i think he should distance himself from Midway Games from now on.

I dugg it. Needs more diggs.

I'm gonna buy the game because I like video games.

I like Twitch too, but unfortunately I don't see the direct relation of a game created by nerds locked away in a lab for 40+ hour nights, the bad decisions of the publisher/ad firm, and my wallet.

Also, the PS3 version gets Hardboiled on the disc nuffsaidkthnx

Caterpillar: basically the way these things tend to work, and the way it worked here, is that you aim to lock up a title sponsor at least six months to a year before the event. This allows you to budget and plan. Money generally comes in installments, the first block coming in after the sponsor can see that you're filling your end of the obligation and the rest coming - hopefully - before all your post-event bills are due. That was the arrangement here. The first half of the sponsorship money was due to be paid right when Midway bailed.

What a low blow! You can bet these assholes will NOT get any of my $$$ . I hope the word gets spread around so people will know what an irresponsible ridiculous rotten company they are . I am a huge video game fan, but will no longer support Midway! Tbank you for the story on this!

Headline and article on the website for Swedens largest vieo game magazine: "Midway fails film festival"

Part quoted:

"Midways treatment of NYAFF have upset many people, and the movie site Twitchfilm, whose editor Todd Brown is a good friend of the organizers, are now calling for a boycot of both Midway Games and Stranglehold. "... with this sort of organization that sort of loss isn't some abstract number on a bottom line, it's someone's rent money. Not cool. Not cool at all." [Todd] writes in an attempt to point out that the festival is a small project run by film lovers (who now have to pay out of their own pockets) and not a major organization or a film company."

- http://www.superplay.se/nyheter/article125392.ece

Don't know if any of their readers really cares about it, but the word is getting out there at least.

This is what contracts are for and that's why there won't be any legal action. Something fishy was going on and the facts don't add up.

By the way Twitch spelled 'boycott' wrong in the headline.

There will be legal action, actually, they're just more concerned with getting the festival up and running right now than they are with sitting around in a lawyer's office. Festival opens in under a month and they've got to get new sponsors lined up, film prints in, guests in etc in that time. Once the festival's done there absolutely will be legal action taken.