As we predicted a couple of weeks back, Midway is now officially considering the sale of Mortal Kombat, which is likely its best and most prized asset; this is part of an effort to restructure the company in order to pull out of its recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing.

Mortal Kombat has been around since it was first released to arcades in 1992 and it remains a favorite with gamers. Since the arcade release the series has drawn much criticism over the brutality of the fatality sequences depicted in the various versions of the game over the years. Still, console gamers have been drawn to the game and sales have been good, with the latest version called Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe shipping over 1.8 million copies since January 2009.

Midway recently announced that the next edition in the Mortal Kombat franchise was already in development, but with the recent events at Midway and the company’s need for money the option of selling the rights to the franchise is being considered.

We predict that the company will likely let the franchise go to the highest bidder in an effort to raise much needed cash, which in the end could breathe new life into the franchise, which has been judged to have become somewhat stalled according to many in the media. We also expect that Midway will continue to explore the sale of other franchises that it owns, but believe that nothing will be able to raise as much cash or interest as Mortal Kombat will among other publishers.