Slashdot Mirror
Acclaim Entertainment Files for Bankruptcy
Prof. Jonathan Ezor, Touro Law Center writes "According to this story in Long Island Business News, Acclaim Entertainment has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the Eastern District of New York bankruptcy court, meaning it will liquidate its assets and shut down. The story states in part, 'Computer game maker Acclaim Entertainment (Nasdaq: AKLM) has filed for voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would result in the liquidation of the company's assets. The company filed papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip that estimated its debts at more than $100 million and its assets at $10 million to $50 million. The filing said it had more than 200 creditors.' Game Over."
There was a point when Acclaim titles were respected. Turok was one of them, until they screwed it up with the XBOX version. South Park's FPS was a fun little game while it lasted, as well as countless other good games I can credit these guys with.
as far as I can see, though, they have failed to innovate:
South Park's N64 FPS, years ago, had run-shoot-run-button-shoot-run type gameplay. Since then, games have become increasingly more innovative, better-looking, and sleeker/more intuitive. Acclaim, though, hung on to their old business model, lost enough market share to go to the ranks of ValuSoft, and even then failed to realize their mistake and improve on it. Now, the former captain has sunk with his ship.
The Queen Is Dead. Long Live The Queen.
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
I think you're right. The only companies that are 'well off' in the current video game world are the big boys such as EA and SquareEnix. The smaller companies are either getting assimilated by the big companies or are being forced to close up shop because they can't afford risks.
On the other hand this seems to foreshadow a time when developers will HAVE to make a decent game or else they will be dead in the water. If you succeed, you are rewarded with some money to back up your crew in the form of a buyout by a big one. Unfortunately, this other means that, like you said, most folks are just going to be trying to make rehash sequels/prequels of current games out there simply because there is too much risk involved in innovative titles any more. I hope that doesn't happen for good in the long run.
"Is it just me or are game publishers dying off? Sierra, Interplay and now Acclaim are all gone"
Add 3DO to that list and see the pattern. Abandon quality and people stop buying the games!
"I know that, other than Doom 3 and Thief 3, it's been a long time since I bought a new release (no, I don't pirate)."
If you didn't buy any other games and didn't play them as a buccaneer, how can you know if you like the games or not? I rarely ever play PC games anymore because I don't like FPS games, but that doesn't mean that I think all PC games are bad, I just don't know about them.
I think as long as games sell more or roughly the same amount of dollars as the year before everything is great. And as much as the press calls for innovation and complexity I rather like a lot of current and older games and wouldn't mind playing similar games again. Added complexity is mostly just annoying.
So no, I don't think the game industry is in trouble. Getting rid of a publisher that produced almost only really bad titles can not be a bad thing for game industry!
I'd agree with that in principle if Acclaim wasn't such a large publisher of games (they've got quite a list of titles)...
:-) Guess that's why I keep my eyes on the independent wargame publishers... :) They're turn-based and proud. :-)
Sure, there are independent developers making crap and dying off all the time, but that's been true of every industry. When the big companies start dying off and/or not being able to find a game that isn't terrible, something larger is amiss. I think we're seeing what is going to happen inevitably to the entire marketplace if the big companies don't stop making MOTS and focusing on graphics and framerates to the nth degree.
I haven't bought a new release in quite some time for any console or my PC/Macs. The games I have bought are used titles of games like Disgaea and La Pucelle Tactics (and Silent Storm 2 for the PC.) The whizzbang movie-tie-in or whatnot hasn't even been on my rent list since I tried to play Blade on the consoles. Bleh.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make (or not, it's been a long day)... is that we're seeing a hyper expansive version of the days before the crash of 84. (mainly it's expansive is because games and console entertainment in general are much more a part of society than in 1984.)
Tons of games are going into the bargain bin (shovelware galore) before you even get a chance to read up on the title, companies are dropping like flies, the "next big thing" is not giving people cause to do their traditional "want it now!" drool-fest. I am thinking if the PS3 and XBox Next aren't leaps and bounds over their current offerings, it's going to collapse under its own weight. The big companies are launching tons of "also-rans" of the last big hit, seeing if any of them will stick... and I just don't think even EA has the financial cushion to keep doing this forever. That's just a guess, of course.
(and I miss TBS games...hehehh)
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.