RSS 4:31am EDT Fri 5th Sep 2008 252 online (59 members & 193 guests) PSU.com: News - PS3-Stranglehold ad pulled, Midway in minor staff layoff
AllPS3PSPPS2
Register | Why sign Up? Forgot password?

New PSU Articles

See Also

Related Games

  • Stranglehold Developer: Midway Entertainment Publisher: Midway Genre: Shooter Sub-Genre: Third Person Shooter Release Date: Sep 25th, 2007 Additonal Info:
  • Fracture Developer: Day 1 Studios Publisher: LucasArts Entertainment Genre: Shooter Sub-Genre: Third Person Shooter Release Date: October 2008 Additonal Info: Also available on Xbox 360
  • Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Developer: Redstorm Entertainment / Ubisoft Paris Publisher: Ubisoft Genre: Shooter Sub-Genre: Third Person Shooter Release Date: August 21st, 2007 Additonal Info:
Developer: Midway Entertainment Publisher: Midway Release Date: Sep 25th 2007 Genre: Shooter Sub Genre: Third Person Shooter
Stranglehold
This article has been read 2,119 times

Stranglehold ad pulled, Midway in minor staff layoff

Posted on January 16th, 2008 at 10:39 EDT

Midway, the publishers behind the PlayStation 3 smash hit Unreal Tournament III, has found itself at the height of media attention this week, though by no means in the most favourable of ways.

To get the ball bouncing, an advertisement campaign for the 2007 release John Woo’s Stranglehold has been ripped from television airways due to the content contained within. Apparently the commercial, which is said to have featured excessive violence and inappropriate language, was aired early in the evening instead of late at night. The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) has commented by saying that the game promotes violence and gun use.

“We considered the ad was likely to be seen as encouraging and condoning violence. The ad must not be broadcast again in its current form."

Despite this, Midway insist that they have done everything to insure that the ad was appropriate for TV.  However, PSU feels it is a little odd as to why the company would even be running advertisements for the game that is already around 4 months old in the first place? Surely the focus should be on marketing Unreal Tournament III?

Elsewhere, Midway is reporting that they are currently pursuing minor layoffs within the firm, with a company representative stating:

"There was a minor layoff in our Austin studio following the completion of a project there. We are still growing our other teams and studios to fulfill our project needs. The reductions were routine and a function of our current project requirements."

This is said to have nothing to do with yesterday's announcement of the resigning of CFO Thomas Powell and Senior VP Steve Allison.

Next: PS3 better than standard Blu-ray players?

Everyone has seemingly jumped on the Blu-ray bandwagon recently, proclaiming it the unofficial winner of the high definition format war between itself and HD DVD. People ...

Latest videos

Latest Screenshots

User Comments

You must Login or Register to post comments
What are your thoughts?
posted 10:47am EST - January 16th, 2008
1

Should that be the channels mistake, as they set up the ads?

posted 10:54am EST - January 16th, 2008
2

psn id:gingo..... midway really sounds in trouble just now i see this as the next company to be bought over or disappear altogether

posted 11:14am EST - January 16th, 2008
3

If this was a film advertisement instead of a video game would the ASA still create such an uproar?

posted 11:28am EST - January 16th, 2008
4

I agree MrAce, with all the movies that depict violence and gun use and all that good stuff, i'm (kind of, not really) surprised that they would single out a video game. The movies with all of that blood and language and gun use get rated R, but are still released and still able to be viewed by everyone who is eligible. Same thing should go with video games, if your 17 and you want to buy this game, or if your parents don't mind buying you this game, whats the big deal? I mean come on, they played Scarface on SpikeTV a little while back and I think that is just a little bit worse than a TV ad for Stranglehold...

posted 11:33am EST - January 16th, 2008
5

psn id: Dragon-slayer87

where in the world is this from??? OMG... if its the same ad they sended in Denmark( in nov. last year ), than how in the world can the ad be encouraging and condoning violence.. they are just being hysterical....

posted 11:38am EST - January 16th, 2008
6

(midway really sounds in trouble just now i see this as the next company to be bought over or disappear altogether) I doubt that. Midway is a huge company and has been around for a very long time. Once the next-gen Mortal Kombat hits, all of the past wounds will heal.

posted 12:20pm EST - January 16th, 2008
7
I think the showing of the advert at the time stated was nothing more than a stunt to draw more attention to the game than the advert would normally get. Personally, I believe they looked at the uproar over games such as Kain & Lynch and others and noticed that that bad publicity made some games more popular with certain gamers simply due to its notoriety. I think this is the case here, where they are trying to get notoriety for the game by using the advert at a very inappropriate time. Lets face it. The games publicity and peoples anticipation for the game just died even before release, and in my case it was right after I played the Demo. I wasn't impressed with it, even though prior to the demo, I was looking forward to seeing more of it because of the trailers I saw. I don't believe it is too late to advertise a game if it hasn't really taken off. So advertising 6 months after release can get more sales...but its a matter of opinion whether the cost of the advert would be overcome with a profit from sales resulting from the advert. Considering this, it actually does make more sense that it was an advertising stunt & nothing more.
posted 1:51pm EST - January 16th, 2008
8

Midway is disintegrating

 

The Financial Officer (Thomas Powel) packed his briefcase and jumped ship along with the North American Marketing Manager (Steve Allison) and VP International Sales (Craig Paton) and VP Human Resources (Rebeca Jarvie) . Midway are finding hard to attract replacement talent because no one in their right mind would come join a stressful software company loosing buckets of cash. Anyone want a job?

 

Meanwhile they continue to shuffle existing employees around to cover the top jobs. Monica Hamilton will get Steve Allison's old Marketing job and Peter Crean will move across to cover International sales on top of his current duties.... but so far no one has put their hand up to manage the financial side of the business as the “strawberry blond ogre” Shari Redstone (Sumner Redstone's daughter) is coming in as Chairwoman to kick R-sses all day after the previous Chairman (Kenneth Cron) ran away from the company.....

 

BTW Shari Redstone lost her last job after her boss (her father) decided she was not capable enough and could not work with her anymore.....Ummmm good luck Midway!

posted 2:08pm EST - January 16th, 2008
9

Midway pulled off a nice one with UT3 but they really need some nice titles if they don't want to be bought out.

posted 4:09pm EST - January 16th, 2008
10

Well, it's a kind of double morale because it's legal to buy weapons in the USA.. So..

posted 6:31pm EST - January 16th, 2008
11
this game sort of slipped under the radar. this hype should sell a few more copy's. i have the collectors edition with the movie on it. the game is really good
posted 8:50pm EST - January 16th, 2008
12

^^ I'm planning on getting that soon. In any case its different nowadays, its not about being famous but infamous.

Top Games: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix | Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 | Need For Speed Pro Street | FIFA 08 | Grand Theft Auto IV | Assassin's Creed |
Top Cheats: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Cheats | Resistance: Fall of Man Cheats | Rainbow Six Vegas Cheats | Ninja Gaiden Sigma Cheats |
PSU: Advertise | Contact | Staff | Jobs | RSS Feed | Wallpapers | Upload a wallpaper | PS3 Themes | Upload a PS3 Theme | PodCasts | Events | Game rankings
Copyright 2006-2008 GameBurst Media Ltd. All Right Reserved. Designed by Naveed Lalani.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameBurst Media Ltd. is prohibited.
Use of this site is governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .
Affiliates: Armchair Empire | Creative Uncut | Chapter Cheats | DarkStation | Free MMORPG | Gamers Brain | Game Cheats | Game Design | Gamerskrew | Gamers Europe | GamerZines | La PS3 | Max PS3 | PlayStation Portable | PS3 | Ps3 cheats | PS3 | Talk Xbox | Xbox 360 Cheats | Xbox 360 News | DarkZero | CheatHappens | NintendoSpin
eXTReMe Tracker