Several classic Midway titles pulled from Xbox Live Arcade

A bevy of old school Midway arcade games have been pulled from Xbox Live Arcade due to publishing rights and ownership issues.

Cyberball 2072, Defender, Paperboy, Rootbeer Tapper, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Robotron, Joust, Gauntlet and Smash TV are all gone from the arcade’s title list. As with any title pulled from the marketplace, you will still be able play them or re-download them if you already purchased them.

When Midway Games filed for bankruptcy in 2009, Warner Bros. purchased many of that company’s assets. So hopefully we’ll see the reissue of these games in downloadable form again at some point.

On his Twitter feed, Xbox Live Community Director Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb debunked one of the biggest rumors surrounding these changes, that they are in some way Microsoft’s doing:

No, it’s not Game Room related.

Microsoft’s Game Room is a virtual arcade in you which can purchase classic titles represented by arcade machines playable by your XBLA avatar.

It certainly would be a perfect place for the games mentioned above. Gamertell will keep you posted on whether these titles reappear on XBLA, in an upcoming software compilation, or some other form.

Read [Major Nelson's Twitter feed] Also Read [Games Industry.biz]