THQ Buys Midway's San Diego Studio For $200,000

Early last month, Warner Bros. received the green light to purchase famed video game publisher Midway Games for $49 million. One of the studios left out of the deal was Midway San Diego (TNA iMPACT!), and the publisher has been trying to offload the studio since the buyout was announced.

Today, the Chicago Tribune (via Gamasutra) reports that publisher THQ Inc. has stepped up, and agreed to buy Midway’s San Diego studio for $200,000, in addition to paying for any liabilities and unpaid time off accrued by former Midway employees.

The SEC filing also revealed that THQ has offered jobs to at least 40 Midway San Diego employees, with the possibility of more offers to come. Midway’s TNA iMPACT! was not included in the agreement, however the game’s engine seems to have been. According to the filing, Warner Bros. and THQ reached an agreement “in connection with a shared engine developed by or on behalf of [Midway] and their affiliates prior to July 10, 2009.”

How this will affect THQ’s WWE and UFC franchises remains to be seen, but at least for now, it will ensure that former Midway developers have a familiar engine to work with they begin working on their first official THQ game.

Midway also managed to sell off its foreign subsidiaries in Germany, France and England to none other than soon-to-be former Midway executives in Europe.

Source (via Gamasutra)