Acclaim Getting F'd in the A
 

Acclaim shutters offices, staffers ushered off premises

Glen Cove staff laid off on Friday, Texas staff locked out of their offices; games library in jeopardy.
According to numerous sources, including some former Acclaim staffers, Acclaim Entertainment's home office in Glen Cove, New York, has been closed and staff has been informed their services are no longer needed. Acclaim staffers were notified of the closing on Friday. Sources said the company's Austin, TX, location has also been shuttered.

Noticeably absent from the scenarios being told to GameSpot News is any mention of the company's intent to declare itself bankrupt or to seek bankruptcy protection.

Some staffers have indicated severance packages have tendered in exchange for signed non-disclosure agreements, while others state only that they've been told not to return to work. The company is demanding that staffers make appointments to pick up possessions still remaining on-site.

As for the future of Acclaim titles which remain in the production pipeline, including 100 Bullets and Juiced, their status is unclear, although sources suggest that when and if the games make it to retail, the Acclaim name will not be attached.

One analyst who covers Acclaim predicted that bankruptcy is an unlikely outcome of the company's recent activities. "The interesting thing here is that they will very likely not liquidate, but will merely declare to keep their creditors at bay until they can generate revenues sufficient to pay their debts. They're not that bad off," the analyst said, "and I think that rumors of their demise are greatly exaggerated."

Of little consolation to staffers who are already interviewing to replace salaries and benefits lost due to the closure, the company's Web site still lists job openings in Texas for programmers and artists. As for any hopes of future news being anything other than one that includes bankruptcy, the view from inside what's left of the Acclaim camp is nothing if not realistic. Said one staffer: "They said don't come in on Monday....The speculation is that it's bankruptcy."

By Curt Feldman -- GameSpot

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Amazing how much trouble certain gaming companies are in these days. Acclaim has put some amazing games up over the years.

So what should be done about things like this? I mean I understand companies make and lose millions of dollars now, but some companies just seem to go down the tube after one year of bad games. What can companies like this do?

That's the thing, to be successful, you've got to be selective in what licenses you pick up, if you're not and you blow all your money on things that won't sell, you'll go under. Acclaim picked up a ton of shitty licenses and it's coming back to bite them in the ass.

Awesome. They may have had some good games back in the day, but I can't really say the same thing about their more recent titles.

Oh no what if they stop making “Mary-Kate & Ashley: Sweet 16” http://www.acclaim.com/games/mka/sweet16/index.html

AHAHAHAHAHA. Thank fuck. They had ONE good series in Burnout and they even let that one slip

All good things come to an end. Acclaim took their sweet time with this.

Acclaim died in 1999 in my eyes.

they had their ride and now it's time for them to well ya know.

stfu

Did they do Mortal Kombat?

They have not had a big hit since WWF Attitude. They have been struggling to make ends meet since early 2000, this should not come as a suprise.

Thanks :)

Raw is War on SNES was better than any other wrestling game they made.

1995 RIP

Didn't they have both WWE and South Park at one time (which were two of the most popular television shows at the time) and fucked both of them up.

RIP

Yeah they made the south park and sout park racing game

These guys made Turok Evolution on next gen systems. Nuff said.