Post by: WindyMan on December 05, 2005, 04:43:51 PM
Remember Acclaim? One of the game industry's biggest publishers during the late 80s and early 90s went bankrupt last year, then was auctioned off and pretty much forgotten about.
Well, Acclaim still has some assets up for grabs. The publishing rights to over 200 games, some as old as 12 years old, are on the auctioning block. Old game titles from the likes of The Simpsons, Bust A Move, Double Dragon, Extreme-G, Re-Volt, and Smash TV will go to the highest bidder. The auction seems to only be for the rights to publish the original games, and not necessarily the licenses that go with them.
The results of this auction may be of interest for those looking forward to Nintendo's Virtual Console feature on the Revolution. Since Acclaim no longer exists, there's no way they can offer all of their old games for download. Whomever walks away as the winning bidder for the Double Dragon games, for instance, will be able to offer it and reap the profits it generates.
Notable offers as of the time of this report include $25,000 for Mr. Domino, $40,000 for the two Re-Volt games, and $75,000 for the four Extreme-G games. To see the rest of the games up for auction, click here.
Post by: Arbok on December 05, 2005, 06:38:23 PM
Post by: UncleBob on December 05, 2005, 06:53:21 PM
Post by: WindyMan on December 05, 2005, 07:14:44 PM
Quote
Originally posted by: Arbok
I hope the first, and best without question, of the Extreme-G games makes it on Rev's download service, as I liked that game quite a bit. Still, I can't imagine someone making a profit off of these through the Rev service, assuming the prices are close to the one for Mr. Domino, as how many downloads would it take to have to cover the initial cost of buying the publishing rights?
Well, there are two N64 games. Assuming a reasonable $10 per N64 download, then it would take 7500 downloads, which isn't too unreasonable either.
If the publishing rights to those games also included the rights to the franchise, that's another story. I believe the licensing rights have already been sold off, though. I don't know to who.
Post by: ruby_onix on December 06, 2005, 12:20:53 AM
Post by: Aussie Ben PGC on December 06, 2005, 12:52:37 AM
Oh, and Kwirk, as well. That game was awesome.
Post by: Infernal Monkey on December 06, 2005, 01:54:21 AM
Oh shi-Iggy's Wreckin' Balls.
Post by: KDR_11k on December 06, 2005, 03:47:25 AM
Post by: KirbySStar on December 06, 2005, 04:16:31 AM
Post by: Nephilim on December 06, 2005, 04:40:20 AM
I was tricked into hiring it by 8-9/10 reviews in n64 mags, talk about over hyped poo
Post by: mukanjou on December 06, 2005, 09:15:28 AM
Post by: joedick on December 06, 2005, 09:53:05 AM
Quote
Originally posted by: UncleBob
$7,500 seems really cheap for all those Simpsons titles...
Yeah but nobody except (I think) EA would be allowed to do anything with them...
Post by: joeposh on December 06, 2005, 11:47:49 AM
Post by: animecyberrat on December 08, 2005, 04:49:41 AM
They still havent told me when the deadline is but if theres time me and some friends are looking into buying the NBA Jam rights, so we can offer those to Nintendo for Rev at a really cheap price and make sure it gets exclusive. Well we would do other thinsg with the righst but it depends soley on how much time they give us to get the money and when the auction ends. Also there is some question as to what exactly the righst accliam holds to the series but considering Midway no longer holds the copyriughts to NBA Jam and all the recent sequels have been Acclaim I think its safe to assume they have pretty extensive control over the property. This sort of explains why NBA Jam wasn't included on any of teh Midways Arcade Treasures titles which always had me confused.
I just hope that if we win the bid that its more than just the righst to the SNES/Genesis versions of those games. I would love to do an NBA Jam Arcade Edition or something like that, with updated features and interviews with teh creators. Also Besides the ability to offer these games for DL theres always compilation disks and those ever increasing TV Plug N Play games. Anyways Ill post more info as soon as I get it.
Post by: ThePerm on December 08, 2005, 04:16:20 PM
Post by: animecyberrat on December 08, 2005, 04:58:12 PM
So far I have been unable to get info on NBA Jam but what my friendes and I were discussion was getting MK and NBA Jam and doing a two pack or something but as far as we can tell it only relates to the code Acclaim had access to and not the full arcade code, which Midway still owns, so as far as Rev or Xbox Arcade goes it could still work, but to publish the games as say GBA or Game Cube ports only Midway can do that. At least on MK NBA Jam may have been sold out right I dont know but I will keep checking.
Anyways it looks like some of these games will be lost forever as theres many that have no bids, I sure wish Nintendo would start making bids on some of these old classics because thatw ay not only would they go to Rev DL service but would be exclusive to it.
Post by: Arbok on December 08, 2005, 05:16:16 PM
Quote
Originally posted by: animecyberrat
Anyways it looks like some of these games will be lost forever as theres many that have no bids, I sure wish Nintendo would start making bids on some of these old classics because thatw ay not only would they go to Rev DL service but would be exclusive to it.
Has anyone attempted to contact any branch of Ninteno about it? There is always the chance that they simply don't know about this, although more likely they don't see it as worth their effort.
Post by: animecyberrat on December 09, 2005, 04:16:38 AM
Post by: animecyberrat on December 10, 2005, 08:24:22 PM
Post by: KDR_11k on December 10, 2005, 10:33:56 PM
"Hey, Turok! That's been a big seller on the N64, let's make it our new mature franchise the kids have been whining for!"
Post by: Arbok on December 11, 2005, 11:05:22 AM
Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
In the Nintendo HQ:
"Hey, Turok! That's been a big seller on the N64, let's make it our new mature franchise the kids have been whining for!"
I know it was just a joke, but was Turok even owned by Acclaim? Because the character originated in the comics ages ago:
Post by: UncleBob on December 11, 2005, 05:10:37 PM
Post by: KDR_11k on December 11, 2005, 08:41:37 PM
By the way, is that a G3 he's holding on that cover?
Post by: vudu on December 12, 2005, 08:20:53 AM
QuoteAm I reading this right? Acclaim is selling the rights to go back in time to between 1992 and 1993 and publish MK and MK II?
I got more info about these games, according to the lawyers each game has different rights and some games are limited to the original consoles they were first published on, for instance Acclaim had righst to Mortal Kombat and MK II BUT only had the rights to publish them for consoles from 1992 to 1995 after that Midway revoked thier liscense and gave it to Sculptured and then Williams sold the rights to Midway once it became a seperate entity.
Post by: animecyberrat on December 30, 2005, 06:32:19 AM
Anyways I hope that whoever bought them actauly does something with it. I have been WAITING for somebody to make a PERFECT MK1 arcade port forever!
Post by: ThePerm on December 30, 2005, 06:49:35 AM
Post by: bustin98 on December 30, 2005, 08:44:33 AM
Anyway, Valiant Comics became Acclaim Comics at some point. Acclaim was going to do the whole line as games. Not the best idea in the world of gaming. In the beginning Valiant had some of the hottest books in the comic industry. Then everyone jumped on the bandwagon and demand dropped like a stone. Then the bottom fell out of the comic industry as a whole (thank you Image
).But I absolutely love the first three Turoks and would like to see a return to the good ole days. Evolution just blew chunks. If the load times and frame rate issues would have been cleaned up I would be more favorable of it.
