Midway Studios Newcastle Limited (originally Pitbull Syndicate) was a British

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

, England.

History

Pitbull Syndicate was formed in December 1996 by an ensemble of programmers and artists with extensive experience in the video game industry. The company started with a small office in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, England, and initially employed eight people, working on PC and

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

games. Slowly expanding, the company moved to larger offices in

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street (), also known as Chester, is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England, around north of Durham and also close to Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the River Wear, which runs out to sea at Sun ...

and later to larger offices in

. By 2005, its staff had swelled to over 60 people working on PC, PlayStation 2 and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

. In October 2005, the company was sold to

Midway Games Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (series), Rampage'' ...

and were renamed Midway Studios Newcastle. Prior to that, Pitbull had created the titles ''

L.A. Rush ''L.A. Rush'', known as ''Rush'' in the PlayStation Portable version, is an open world racing video game developed by Midway Studios – Newcastle and published by Midway Games, released in North America for PlayStation 2 and Xbox (not compa ...

'' and '' Rush'' for Midway. It was Midway's only studio located outside the U.S. and was closed in July 2009 after the sale of most of Midway's assets to

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

A game called ''Necessary Force'' was being developed at the time of the closure. The rights to the game have diverted back to Midway Games as they are shopping the intellectual property. Some members of the team were able to band together and form a new company, Atomhawk Design. In July 2010, Robert Troughton, founder of Pitbull Syndicate, announced the formation of

Pitbull Studio Pitbull Studio Limited was a British video game developer based in Houghton-le-Spring, England, with additional offices in Guildford and Leamington Spa. History Pitbull Studio was formed in 2010, a year after the collapse of Midway Studios � ...

, one year after Midway folded the renamed company. Troughton also said that an unannounced project was in development.

Games developed

As Pitbull Syndicate

As Midway Studios – Newcastle

Unauthorized logo used by hate groups

In the early 2000s, Pitbull Syndicate's logo was used by several

Neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

groups, most prominently by the

Keystone United Keystone United, formerly known as the Keystone State Skinheads (KSS), is a neo-Nazi group based in Pennsylvania. The Southern Poverty Law Center stated that the group is one of the largest and most active single-state racist skinhead crews in ...

skinhead group. The

Anti-Defamation League The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...

has listed this exact pitbull image as a

White Supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...

extremist symbol.

References

External links

Company pagePitbull show off k9, Automaniacs and Over the TopPitbull Studio pageAtom Hawk page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Midway Studios - Newcastle Midway Games Video game development companies Video game companies established in 1996 Video game companies disestablished in 2009 Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in Tyne and Wear