Author Topic: Acclaim Files Bankruptcy (Read 11234 times)

TheYoungerPlumber · « **on:** September 01, 2004, 08:04:59 PM »

The publisher behind XGRA and Turok is drowning in red.

After years of less than favorable “profit” margins, Acclaim has filed bankruptcy.

Local paper New York Newsday reports that the once-mighty 3rd party publisher filed Chapter 7 at Central Islip’s US Bankruptcy Court in New York. To pay its debt breaching $100 million, the company will liquidate its assets of between $10 and $50 million.

This means we will likely see Acclaim’s more notable intellectual properties sold to the highest bidder, and suggests the company is down for the count.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #1 on:** September 01, 2004, 09:05:30 PM »

You see that, Eidos? That's how we'd like to see you!

Mario · « **Reply #2 on:** September 01, 2004, 11:47:52 PM »

ruby_onix · « **Reply #3 on:** September 02, 2004, 02:26:46 AM »

Good bye Acclaim.

I'll probably remember you fondly as "that company that used to make NES games".

RABicle · « **Reply #4 on:** September 02, 2004, 02:44:27 AM »

For some reason I'm not as elated as I expected I would be that they've gone. Wait a minute they bloody advertised on tombstones, idiots.

Cheat Freak · « **Reply #5 on:** September 02, 2004, 04:45:13 AM »

oh im so sad sniff sniff
now if Atari to will just lay down and die the world will be a better place

KDR_11k · « **Reply #6 on:** September 02, 2004, 06:17:32 AM »

RABicle: Makes me wonder what the ad space on their tombstone costs...

Someone on Slashdot put it like this: "This proves that God is alive and benevolent!"...

JubJub · « **Reply #7 on:** September 02, 2004, 07:30:14 AM »

Ok, so Acclaim may not have been a shining star of late, but i think everyone should show a bit more respect here.

The company is laying of hundreds of staff and has been a part of video game history... they've been around for ages.

I personally don't want to see EA as the only game developer in the world, and this loss of Acclaim is just one more step towards formulaic games that we've been playing for too long already. What companies are going to continue to take risks with new franchises and novelty ideas if this happens???

It's also very sad so here people wanting Eidos and Atari to go this way also... joking or not i'd HATE to see Eidos and Atari go bankrupt.

The more publishers, the more variety, and the better choice for us.

Show the respect the company deserves!

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #8 on:** September 02, 2004, 07:40:40 AM »

More variety of crap? No thanks...Yeah I feel sorry for the people that lost their jobs, but if they are good enough they'll find work elsewhere...But I don't feel bad for the bigwigs who didn't know how to run a real game company and shoveled crap onto the market...Thanks for a few of your early games, Acclaim, but 7 years straight of crap is enough...

sikboy1029 · « **Reply #9 on:** September 02, 2004, 07:46:32 AM »

take a look here http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/215.html there are some great games on that list, it hasn't been years of just crap

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #10 on:** September 02, 2004, 08:22:27 AM »

And the last good game on there, imo, was Turok 1 in 1997...early-1997 to mid-2004 = approximately 8 years of crap...Worse off than I previously thought...

Slab · « **Reply #11 on:** September 02, 2004, 10:17:56 AM »

see what happens when turok goes multiplatform? The once might Turok has fallen...he was really good on the n64, but once they decided to go multiplatform the quality really suffered and that game sucked so much. Not to mention the dumb marketing campaign for turok...change your name to turok...LOL

Grey Ninja · « **Reply #12 on:** September 02, 2004, 12:14:04 PM »

If there were any game developer who deserved to go bankrupt, it would be Acclaim. They've been around since forever, but they have never really developed anything special. It was Acclaim I believe who made/published Narc. This was a pretty good arcade game I hear, but on the NES, it became known as the game (coupled with some Friday the 13th), that turned me off action games for a very very long time, until the N64 came out, and I started to find that action games were fun again. (Especially ones not developed by Acclaim).

I have no real fondness for the company, as their only games that I really liked were either ported from something made by another developer, or simply published by a small developer (ie. Burnout). Years and years of crappy games just sort of tarnishes the reputation of any developer.

But I am still somewhat sad to see them go though, even after all their attrocious games and lousy business practices. The world now has one less game developer, be they good or bad. Somehow I suspect that in Acclaim's case, the real problem with them was management and not really talent... and I wish all the staff employed by Acclaim well, and hope that they can move on to actually accomplishing great things.

ruby_onix · « **Reply #13 on:** September 02, 2004, 01:19:00 PM »

Quote
take a look here http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/215.html there are some great games on that list, it hasn't been years of just crap

That list makes me sad. Honestly. So very much wasted potential.

I mean, it's not just that they spent more than a decade working on videogames, and have absolutely nothing to show for it. (And I don't think it's just "my tastes" either. Even setting my preferences aside, it's very hard to find ANYTHING on that list that comes close to being a "quality" game, except Turok, and maybe some of the WWF games.) It's that they spent more than a decade as quite honestly a WORLD CLASS DEVELOPER working on videogames, and have absolutely nothing to show for it. Not even any fond memories (well, maybe a few, here and there).

Looking at that list just brings back feelings of many, many years of pathetic dissapointment, all balled into a big stinky pile.

They deserved better than that. They got it. Rest in peace Acclaim.

Djunknown · « **Reply #14 on:** September 02, 2004, 01:37:22 PM »

Man, I just flew in from Athens, and boy are is my butt tired!

*Silence*

As usual, the big news happens when I'm not around, but wow I didn't expect this so soon!
I'm sure the corporate weasels have an ace up their sleeve to save their own skins, they're not THAT stupid; its the employees I feel for. Hopefully they'll get picked up or start their own ventures.

joeamis · « **Reply #15 on:** September 02, 2004, 05:01:02 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: RABicle
For some reason I'm not as elated as I expected I would be that they've gone. Wait a minute they bloody advertised on tombstones, idiots.

Actually Tombstones are a very good food to advertise videogames on. The people who buy Tombstones are primarily college students, and parents for their children to eat. They hit the demographics right on. Also they aren't the only ones to have advertised videogames on Tombstones... Not to mention neither company really just advertised, but rather it was a special deal/contest thing. And if you still think for some bizarre reason that's a bad food to deal in, you haven't seen nothing.

KDR: Why do you want Eidos to go bankrupt? The Thief games, Hitman games, Dues Ex, R-Type Final, Timesplitters 2, early Tomb Raider games, Herdy Gerdy, Legacy of Kain games, Final Fantasy 7 PC, Commandos series PC, and not to mention their games on older generation systems... are all quality games. Not to mention that Get on Da Mic should help Nintendo market the new microphone peripheral... And just because they didn't develop every game in house, doesn't = them being sh1t. Or do you just respect developers and see no reason for publishers. Or maybe you'd love to see game development become a smaller business in Europe, as Eidos is the largest developer in the UK. And I thought you were an Anachronox fan, without Eidos Ion Storm would've crashed and burned before they released anything. And then there's Eidos taking risks even today, publishing games like Mister Mosquito. They also have never been a company about completely in house development, but I guess in your opinion that's the only companies that should exist. I'm looking forward to Snowblind and their PSP title Free Running, among others.

Cheatfreak: why should Atari die? They were the first company to make games for at home viable. They were responsible for tons of arcade games before that happened, and without arcade games, not only would there be no home games today, but who knows what the industry would be today. And now that they're owned by another company who's taken over their rights to their old properties, is a continuation of the earliest profilic game company in the business. God I won't even get into the games, and the multitude of systems Atari has supported over the years (a good thing). Just go through this list: Impressive People seem to have no respect for companies on this forum unless they're currently sniffing Nintendo's butt.

As far as Acclaim, you all seem to dwell on their bad games, and bad news in general on the forum... So Acclaim did release mostly mediocre games in recent years, but they have also released some great games, including this generation. Maybe you guys don't know about enough games other than the ones you like.

Perfect Cell · « **Reply #16 on:** September 02, 2004, 05:29:12 PM »

Karmas a bitch... Nintendo helped Acclaim through the tough years by making Turok a big seller... Acclaim repays Nintendo by 1.Making it multi plataform during the Cube era... 2.Making The last turok terrible, and then being one of the first companies to dump the Cube, and bad mouth it infront of the media...

Well tough luck... Im glad the makers of awesome titles like BMX XXX, and the Mary and Kate franchise, are gone... Good Riddance!

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #17 on:** September 02, 2004, 05:52:44 PM »

"Actually Tombstones are a very good food to advertise videogames on. The people who buy Tombstones are primarily college students, and parents for their children to eat. They hit the demographics right on. Also they aren't the only ones to have advertised videogames on Tombstones... Not to mention neither company really just advertised, but rather it was a special deal/contest thing. And if you still think for some bizarre reason that's a bad food to deal in, you haven't seen nothing."

LOL...I seriously hope you were joking, because the tombstones that Acclaim advertised on(or so was said) are the gravestone type...

Shin Gallon · « **Reply #18 on:** September 02, 2004, 06:53:55 PM »

Oh no, where will we go for crappy movie liscense games and atrociously bad sports titles now? Oh yeah, there's always EA, I forgot...

ssj4_android · « **Reply #19 on:** September 02, 2004, 07:23:00 PM »

What happens to Worms 3D for xbox? Acclaim's bankruptcy is making some people guy it for the gamecube. The burnout games rocked. And worms is good (well, I think armegeddon for the PC will always be best). Of course, those are just games that they published. Tem 17 can hopefully get new publishers, if they haven't already. And Burnout 3 is coming out under EA. Apparently, it got a 10/10 from OXM (higher than Halo? O_o). Wounder what would've happened if Acclaim published it.
EDIT again: Whoops, XBN, not OXM. And I have no idea what they gave Halo. I wonder why Burnout 3 isn't being published for the GCN though.

JubJub · « **Reply #20 on:** September 02, 2004, 07:31:55 PM »

"why should Atari die? They were the first company to make games for at home viable. They were responsible for tons of arcade games before that happened, and without arcade games, not only would there be no home games today, but who knows what the industry would be today."

Actually, the Atari of today is not the same company that was Atari 5, 10, 15 or 20 years ago. The Atari you are talking about threw in the towel a couple of years ago, Infogrames are now known at Atari - they just swapped their names.

Generally speaking now though, if 300 game makers are sacked, that makes 300 up & coming game makers with bright new ideas and talent waiting in the wings for longer. Shrinking of the industry is always a bad thing.

Sure, Acclaim weren't the greatest quality developer but i spent many hours on the couch with my housemate playing baseball...

ruby_onix · « **Reply #21 on:** September 02, 2004, 10:36:50 PM »

Quote
As far as Acclaim, you all seem to dwell on their bad games...

Have you paid attention to the news lately? Their bad games killed a major company.

Actually, it was Nintendo that killed Ack-lame. Don't tell anyone.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #22 on:** September 03, 2004, 12:14:14 AM »

Some people here claim this is bad for diversity. Well, if Acclaim actuall contributed any diversity that would be a valid point, but it's about as bad for diversity as EA Sports going out of busiess.

Eidos might have been a good company once, but they're falling. Many companies have lost their former glory (e.g. EA was once a forerunner of innovation, can you imagine that?) and become crap, those companies should just die. The present performance is all that matters, just because the pony had lots of tricks ten years ago doesn't mean it isn't ready for the meat grinder now.

Bloodworth · « **Reply #23 on:** September 03, 2004, 06:30:02 AM »

Quote
Cheatfreak: why should Atari die? They were the first company to make games for at home viable.

The Atari name has changed hands so many times, it's pathetic. The Atari you're speaking of already died back in the early 80's. They were good. Then they were bought out by Warner Bros. who quickly fired the founder. Then the company flooded the market with crappy games, causing the entire console industry to collapse, and then they sold off Atari in various parts.

joeamis · « **Reply #24 on:** September 04, 2004, 12:49:12 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Bill Aurion
"
LOL...I seriously hope you were joking, because the tombstones that Acclaim advertised on(or so was said) are the gravestone type...

Yea I heard about that rumor years ago, but I thought he was chastising them for advertising on the pizzas, something I wouldn't be surprised someone saying on the forum.

News:

Author Topic: Acclaim Files Bankruptcy (Read 11234 times)