Confirming recent rumors, now-bankrupt Midway has signed into a “strategic relationship” with Ubisoft to get Vin Diesel’s open-world driving game Wheelman finished and on store shelves. Under this partnership, Midway retains all future rights to the franchise and continues to lead the game’s development alongside Vin Diesel’s own Tigon Studios, with Ubisoft now tasked with handling sales, marketing, and distribution duties in all major territories, including North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Ireland and the UK.
“We are pleased to be partnering with Midway to bring Wheelman to stores worldwide,” said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Ubisoft. “The cutting edge open-world driving technology in Wheelman should make for an experience that gamers will enjoy.”
“Ubisoft’s decision to join Midway in a co-publishing agreement is a gratifying validation of Wheelman’s potential,” commented Matt Booty, president and CEO, Midway. “Ubisoft has a proven expertise at bringing new IP to market, which will allow us to reach a broader consumer segment with Wheelman, while helping Midway to balance the risk profile of our product portfolio.”
“The development team in Newcastle, UK, has fine-tuned and polished Wheelman, especially in these last few months, to deliver a true Hollywood blockbuster experience,” said Craig Duncan, studio head, Midway Studios – Newcastle Ltd. “The demo due out for Xbox 360 and PS3 will show that Wheelman’s new game design mechanics like cinematic super moves and vehicular combat will revolutionize driving games.”
Even with this publishing shift, Wheelman is still scheduled to ship for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 24th in North America and March 27th across Europe. A playable demo is also planned for release on consoles sometime prior to game launch. Expect more details on that soon.