Topic: The End is Near for Acclaim

[WindyMan]

The once-elite publisher is losing money, losing franchises, and is almost about to lose everything else.

Acclaim has released its financial report for its fiscal year ending on March 31st, and the numbers aren't good: In the past year, the company has lost $56.4 million. (Then again, they lost $84.4 million the year before, so it's not that bad...)  These massive losses don't bode well for the credit line, and if Acclaim doesn't find a new source of money to help counterbalance these debts, they'll have to file for bankruptcy.

To add insult to injury, Acclaim has lost two if its biggest remaining franchises,  mostly because of failure to pay royalty fees.  The Major League Baseball Player's Association has dropped All Star Baseball from its list of licenses, meaning Acclaim can't use the names or likenesses of MLB players in its game, effectively making ASB worthless.  More embarassing, however, is that Acclaim no longer holds the rights to Turok.  The first-person shooter that made a name for the publisher (in both a good and bad way) was taken away from them last month from Classic Media, creators of the franchise.

These latest two franchises lost can be added to the list of big-name games taken away from them.  The first to go, of course, was the then-named WWF series of games to THQ, and recently Criterion's Burnout series to EA.  With virtually no licensed or familiar game properties left in their lineup, Acclaim's future is very bleak, if they even have a future left.

Just to put into perspective how bad it is for Acclaim, their stock price on the NASDAQ is currently around $0.25 a share, which is well below the $1.00 minimum stock price the index requires its listees to hold.

[The Omen]

I can't help but laugh harder than I ever have.  Good riddance.

[Ian Sane]

Eh, no surprise here.  These guys have like a 10:1 bad game:good game ratio.  When you have such a long record of completely sh!tty games you're going to go bottom up and you deserve it too.  Turok Evolution and BMX XXX are two of the worst games made this gen (or possibly ever).

I was unaware that Turok had been taken away.  Makes sense.

[joshnickerson]

I love it. Mere months after they said they didn't think the Gamecube was profitable, they're close to going under themselves. Mwa ha ha.

[Bill Aurion]

Turok deserves much better...Thanks for screwing it up, Acclaim

[GaimeGuy]

I have one thing to say:

It's about time.

[couchmonkey]

*Sigh*.  I know Acclaim made a lot of crap games, but this is still sad news.   A lot of people are going to lose their jobs, and in spite of what we're saying, I'm sure the majority of Acclaim's staff actually wants to make good games.  Too bad the marketers and managers at the company put trash and expediency ahead of quality products.

[MysticGohan24]

heh, I figured this would happen at one point or another. It's finally coming to an end for acclaims horrible onslaught of bad games.
Maybe some of the staff will  form a new studio, to make decent games.

Turok was actually good, on the 64. atleast up till 2 or 3 not sure which was actually better

But acclaim had to screw it up with their whacked advertisments and contests, what a freak of nature.

Let alone the onetime when they released a racing game a any who speeds and got a ticket acclaim would pay for it.

Incompetent people at work!!!

[darknight06]

I kinda hate to say this because I know there's going to be people out of a job now and I wish the GOOD employees of that company the best of luck in the future.  However,  on the other hand IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!  They made almost nothing but absolute crap for 15 years and with the exception of the Midway arcade ports long time ago and Turok1 they haven't done anything that I felit like was really worthwile for the industry.  If this means they're actually finished, good riddance.  

[Flames_of_chaos]

The only thing that Acclaim did good this gen was Crazy Taxi(sorta), ExtremeGIII,XGRA(both where alright not spectacular) and Burnot 1 and 2(the only real notible thing from their publishing arm) the rest are junk.  And when i did good i mean by average or alittle bit better than average.

[Bill Aurion]

Crazy Taxi is by Sega...

[theRPGFreak]

Acclaim only published Crazy Taxi and some other games with Sega first of all, secondly I think that this is a clear sign if you make BAD GAMES like 3D0 and now Acclaim, then you will no survive this business. People are not as stupid as they use to be about buying games where they only judge a game by its license or TV commercials (I was like this at a very young age sadley.....Batman for NES, the Rocketeer...) instead put the freakin time and effort into a game people can ENJOY. Midway and Eidos....your next.........

[Dasmos]

I can't say i really care, because of the fact that none of the games interesred me so i never owned one. I have played some games for sure but that is about the extent of my realtionship with Acclaim.

[Uncle Rich AiAi]

How can you bash Acclaim?  They developed Krusty's Super Fun House!

oh noes.......

[Flames_of_chaos]

Acclaim should make a game that you can kill Acclaim employees and it should be Acclaim: This is what we deserve. It'll be a big hit

[Perfect Cell]

Its almost like Karma... Acclaim complained about the GCN... and dropped it from its lineup....now its them who are getting dropped... I wont shed a tear. Especially how they kiled of Turok... one of the better franchises on the N64...  Eidos/Atari/Sega Sports havent been doing all to well after they dropped Nintendo either.

[S-U-P-E-R]

Quote
Originally posted by: couchmonkey
*Sigh*.  I know Acclaim made a lot of crap games, but this is still sad news.   A lot of people are going to lose their jobs, and in spite of what we're saying, I'm sure the majority of Acclaim's staff actually wants to make good games.  Too bad the marketers and managers at the company put trash and expediency ahead of quality products.

I wouldn't worry too much, the talented people will get jobs at other companies if they haven't already gotten hired away. Right?

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Hey, I own Krusty's Super Fun House.  Maybe I'll give it away someday so someone else can shudder at the impossibility of the game's later levels.

[Epitaph]

My guess is that atari is next, matrix was horrible and they just keep on relying on movie contracts. My mind just tells me their next. It makes sense that companies are falling out tho the market got too big too fast and then all the companies saturated it. So whats gonna happen now companies are gonna go banktrupt and the survivers will start to make alot of money and its gonna turn into something like the music industrie where a select few companies own the whole thing.

[Syl]

Quote
Originally posted by: Epitaph
My guess is that atari is next, matrix was horrible and they just keep on relying on movie contracts. My mind just tells me their next. It makes sense that companies are falling out tho the market got too big too fast and then all the companies saturated it. So whats gonna happen now companies are gonna go banktrupt and the survivers will start to make alot of money and its gonna turn into something like the music industrie where a select few companies own the whole thing.

True that.

I won't mourn acclaim, the one title they did that i care about is currently being released by EA.  (Burnout)

I think that Midway is going to be heavily relying on the new Mortal Kombat game as well....

Vivendi is barely staying afloat as it is, they need to be very grateful they have blizzard.

Interplay also recently got owned...

I'm thinking that this business is going to slowly turn into one of publishing monopolies =/
 

[Djunknown]

Yeah, I feel for the employees who wanted to make good games, best of luck to them.

As mentioned earlier, other mediocre/crappy publishers better start counting their stock; the video-game reaper may come for them too...

Any one want to bet who's next to go?  

[Felis Demens CCXXI]

Technically, it'd be an Oligopoly, Syl.

[KDR_11k]

Quote
Originally posted by: Epitaph
My guess is that atari is next, matrix was horrible and they just keep on relying on movie contracts. My mind just tells me their next. It makes sense that companies are falling out tho the market got too big too fast and then all the companies saturated it. So whats gonna happen now companies are gonna go banktrupt and the survivers will start to make alot of money and its gonna turn into something like the music industrie where a select few companies own the whole thing.

Actually Atari is still a bit farther from the ground than Eidos. I think Eidos is the next to impact, Atari has an occassional hit title that keeps them afloat. Won't be too long until they fumble, crash and burn, but I think they'll outlast Eidos, anyway. Activision's still alive, though, and Doom 3 wil give them a bt of upward motion. Now we just need to see THQ and their subsidiary ValuSoft (look at the fine print, ValuSoft is a division of THQ) die and we'll be free from most awful publishers.

[mouse_clicker]

As has been stated, Midway is in some serious trouble, and Interplay got real screwed. Not to mention 3DO dissipated not too long ago. I'm kind worried about all these publishers struggling. I mean, I know they're bad and all, but having that many companies go south so soon can't be a good sign for the industry.

[Caillan]

Quote
I'm kind worried about all these publishers struggling. I mean, I know they're bad and all, but having that many companies go south so soon can't be a good sign for the industry.

Yeah, I can see another big crash happening real soon. It's enivitable, though, so there's little use worrying about it. Maybe all these crap publisher's sinking will postpone it for a while, as the industry's value will be less inflated. Maybe not.