Midway's financial statement for the fourth quarter (and thus the full year) of 2004 are in; and it's looking good for them. Two of their main financial highlights were the release of Mortal Kombat: Deception as well as the announcement and planned release of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks for 2005. From the article:

"Our 2004 fourth quarter results cap a year of progress at Midway which has positively repositioned the Company for the future," commented President and Chief Executive Officer, David F. Zucker. "By focusing on improving our key operating functions such as product development and marketing, Midway produced much higher quality games and generated much better visibility and demand for our games in 2004. In addition to the progress we made in improving our operations, we also made several strategic acquisitions and partnerships that strengthened our product development capabilities, brought us key franchise content and extended our reach into new markets, such as PC games," added Mr. Zucker.

To read the entire press release, click here. To read it in its original Adobe PDF format, click here. Our thanks once again to MK Online forum/chat member DECEPTION for the heads up!

GameCube owners now have the chance to enjoy Mortal Kombat: Deception, which is available in game stores everywhere as of today! Owners of multiple consoles also have an incentive to purchase the GameCube version for two exclusive characters, Goro and Shao Kahn. Midway has issued a press release which announces the game's availability and mentions many of the awards that MKD has won, including:

• Best Fighting Game of 2004 - Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
• Best Fighting Game of 2004 & Editor's Choice Award - GamePro Magazine
• Best Fighting Game of 2004 - GameSpot.com
• Best Fighting Game of 2004 - SpikeTV
• Best Fighting Game of E3 2004 - IGN.com
• Best Fighting Game of E3 2004 - GameSpot.com

To read the press release in its entirety, click here.

Midway Games has released a render from their upcoming release of Epic Games's upcoming X-Box game Unreal Championship 2! This render is of particular interest to MK fans as it includes everyone's favorite thunder god, Raiden! As can be seen in the render (and in previous UC2 media), Raiden retains his pre-Deception appearance; this is obviously the "good" Raiden as opposed to the dark one.



To see the image in a smaller file-size (more appropriate for dial-up users), click here. To see the full 2 MB render, click here

Our thanks to forum member kubaidragon for this heads-up, and to Mortal Kombat Guides who first broke this story!

The guys over at GameTrailers also attended Midway Winter Gamer's Day, and have now posted their videos of the whole event. Their footage is exactly the same as what we have posted up earlier, but they're broken up as several smaller videos which many should find convenient. Check them out here:

• GT Interview – Quicktime .MOV (10.3 MB), Windows Media .WMV (10.5 MB)
• GD Kombat – Quicktime .MOV (15.6 MB), Windows Media .WMV (16 MB)
• GD Moves– Quicktime .MOV (8.3 MB), Windows Media .WMV (8.8 MB)
• GD Backgrounds – Quicktime .MOV (8.9 MB), Windows Media .WMV (9.3 MB)
• GD Gameplay – Quicktime .MOV (4.2 MB), Windows Media .WMV (4.3 MB)
• GD Weapons – Quicktime .MOV (3.4 MB), Windows Media .WMV (3 MB)
• GD Bosses – Quicktime .MOV (4.8 MB), Windows Media .WMV (8.8 MB)
• GD Ko-Op – Quicktime .MOV (6.3 MB), Windows Media .WMV (8.8 MB)
• GD Fatalities – Quicktime .MOV (5.5 MB), Windows Media .WMV (8.8 MB)

You can also check out the full list of videos here. Thanks to MK Online forum member black_dragon for the news tip!

IGN has posted a new video interview with Midway's Ed Boon, in which Ed discusses the upcoming action/adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks! For the most part, the interview consists of Ed talking about different features of the game, intercut with footage from the trailer that Midway released during Gamers Day. Not much new is mentioned in this interview; however, Ed does make a few points not previously mentioned. For one, he does confirm that fatalities can be upgraded like special moves can, becoming such things as brutalities, for example. In addition, fatalities can only be performed on non-boss enemies. Also, Ed states that he would like to see a cycle of an MK game coming out every year, with fighting games and action/adventure games alternating every year.
The videos are in Quicktime format for IGN Insider members, and Windows Media format for non-Insiders. To view the video in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum/chat member DECEPTION for the heads-up on this interview!