London-based Midway Games Ltd. and Midway Games SAS (Paris) will from now on be operating under the names Tradewest Games Ltd. and Tradewest Games SAS.

Martin Spiess, who previously was responsible for the European publishing and distribution arm of the international game publisher Midway Games Inc. from 2005 onwards as Executive Vice President - International, recently acquired ownership of the UK and French offices of Midway Games Inc. as part of a management buyout.

During his time at Midway Spiess significantly expanded the company’s European business. Most recently, Midway’s European publishing and distribution operations contributed close to 40 % of Midway’s worldwide business. Spiess is considered to be one of the most experienced managers in the European games industry.

In addition to Midway’s UK and French offices Spiess has also acquired the rights to the Tradewest brand. This is a brand representative of tradition, a name under which a well-known North American game publisher operated between 1986 and 1994. In 1994 Tradewest’s business was taken over by WMS Industries (the then-proprietor of the Midway and Williams brands) and became Williams Entertainment Inc., which was  then renamed Midway Home Entertainment Inc. in 1996. Over the following thirteen years Midway, whose parent was listed on the US New York Stock Exchange, moved on to become one of the leading developers and providers of computer and video games in the world.

“We are very glad to have acquired the rights to such an internationally well-known brand of such tradition in the gaming industry”, said Martin Spiess. “Under the name Tradewest Games we will as of now be acting as a European full service provider in the fields of game distribution and publishing. We have access to a wide-reaching global network of game developers and international partners from all relevant areas of the games industry. First and foremost, however, there’s a well-experienced  European team behind Tradewest Games that has proven its expertise and know-how in the past years by bringing to market  some of the biggest games projects in the world.’’