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Acclaim Entertainment was an American Video Game Developer and Publisher . It developed, published, marketed, and distributed Interactive Entertainment Software for a variety of Hardware Platforms , including Sega 's Genesis , Saturn , Dreamcast , and Game Gear , Nintendo 's NES , SNES , Nintendo 64 , GameCube , Game Boy , Game Boy Color , and Game Boy Advance , Sony 's PlayStation and PlayStation 2 , Microsoft 's Xbox , and, to a lesser extent, Personal Computer systems and Arcade Games . Since Acclaim Entertainment's 2004 demise, the Acclaim brand and logotype have been purchased and are now used by Acclaim Games . People claim that Acclaims stupid idea to release such cheap and sleazy games like the ill-fated BMX XXX and a bootleg Gran Turismo 4 / Need for Speed Underground game called Juiced were the final straws for the company and led them to become bankrupt. The companies greatest moments were the early 90's when they had Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam domination on home consoles. HISTORY Founded in 1986 as a Delaware Corporation , Acclaim maintained operations in the United States , the United Kingdom , Germany , France , Spain , Australia , and Japan . In its first years, Acclaim was exclusively a Video Game Publisher , either farming the creation of its video games to External Developers or localizing existing video games from overseas. But as it grew, it purchased some independent studios, including Iguana Entertainment of Austin, Texas , and Sculptured Software of Salt Lake City, Utah . The name of the company was picked because it had to be alphabetically above the co-founder's former place of employment, Activision , and also had to be alphabetically above Accolade (another company formed by ex-Activision employees). This was a common formula for picking names of new companies that were founded by ex-Activision employees (the founders of Activision used this formula when they left Atari ). Many of Acclaim's products were licensed titles: games based on Comics , Television series (including Wrestling shows) and Movie s. They were also responsible for the Ports of many of Midway's arcade games in the early-to-mid 1990s , including the '' Mortal Kombat '' series. They also published some games from other companies that at the time of publishment didn't have an American branch, such as Technos Japan 's '' Double Dragon II '' and Taito 's '' Bust-A-Move '' series. The waning of the arcade game industry, coupled with some poor sales and public enthusiasm from several key titles led to the eventual loss of many of their licenses. One result of this was their late Refactor ing of the Dave Mirra's Freestyle BMX series. Late into development, semi-nude, Nude and Porn content (e.g., Full Motion Video of strippers and nude female riders) was added in hopes of boosting sales. However, like most of their other contemporary titles, '' BMX XXX '' sold poorly and was derided for its trashy content and porn gameplay. Dave Mirra himself publicly disowned the game, stating that he was not involved in the decision to include nudity. To add to that, their arcade game ''Batman Forever'' had poor sales also due to poor gameplay. A less significant aspect of Acclaim's business was the development and publication of Strategy Guide s relating to their software products and the issuance of "special edition" Comic Magazine s, via Acclaim Comics , to support the more lucrative Brand names. During Acclaim's decline towards bankruptcy, they made several infamous business and marketing decisions. One example was a promise to UK gamers that a 500 pound prize would be awarded to up to five winners who would name their baby "Turok", to promote the release of '' Turok Evolution ''. Another was an attempt to buy advertising space on actual tombstones for a '' Shadowman '' game. The company also had a history of shady dealings with its employees. Roughly two years after its 1995 acquisition of the Salt Lake City-based Sculptured Software, during which it offered Sculptured Software employees what looked like iron-clad contracts and stock that would be vested over the course of the contracts, it abruptly laid off about half the company, violating its own contract terms. The lay-off, however, came so abruptly that the employees had to choose between taking a reasonable severance package (whose terms altered several times during the initial weeks after the layoff) and not suing, or taking a number after a number of other creditors to sue and losing the severance package. (Personal communication from Paul G. Webb, a mid-level manager caught in the lay-off.) In 2007, one of numerous class action suits filed on behalf of stockholders was won, allowing some of these employees the chance at least to realize a return on some of the stock that had been vested. (http://www.sbclasslaw.com/settlements/Acclaim%20Entertainment%20-%20Notice.pdf). Named in this particular suit were founder and CEO Greg Fishbach, Edmond Sanctis, James Scoroposki and Gerard Agoglia. Acclaim also suffered multiple Lawsuits , a portion of them with former partners. Mary Kate And Ashley Olsen sued over unpaid royalties. Dave Mirra sued for fear of being associated with '' BMX XXX ''. Another was from Acclaim's own investors, claiming that Acclaim management had published misleading financial reports. Acclaim suffered severe financial problems in 2004 , the result of most of their ) selling very poorly. This resulted in the closure of Acclaim Studios Cheltenham and Acclaim Studios Manchester in England and other places and their filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, leaving many employees unpaid. Amongst the titles under development at the UK studios were '' Emergency Mayhem '', and '' Made Man ''. On 1 September 2004 , Acclaim filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of New York , which would virtually annihilate their company in liquidating all possible assets to pay off their enormous debt which reportedly tops USD $100 million. An attempt to reopen the Cheltenham and Manchester studios (under the new name Exclaim) failed due to legal wrangling over IP , with both the US and UK administrators claiming rights. In August 2005, former Activision executive Howard Marks purchased the name "Acclaim" for a reported $100,000. In the beginning of 2006, Marks formed a new company called Acclaim Games . According to a job listing for the company, Acclaim Games is aimed at the US and UK "tween" multiplayer markets. Ironically in light of the company's history of lawsuits, the Acclaim Games website states, "Acclaim Games is a new company but we are fortunate to have acquired a great brand with a rich history. Below, you will find lots of really great information on why Acclaim in its previous life was a great Company. We want to bring back the Acclaim brand in all of its glory, please try our games and you will understand why the best for the Acclaim brand is yet to come. Wikipedia has an excellent and up-to-date history of Acclaim." (http://phpbb.acclaim.com/acclaim/viewtopic.php?t=2) On 7 July 2006 , Throwback Entertainment announced that it had acquired over 150 Acclaim-published titles and vows to bring some into the next-generation. VALIANT COMICS See Also: Valiant Comics Valiant Comics stormed onto the market in the 1990s, selling more than 80 million books in its first five years. Its characters have seen print in numerous languages across the globe and have featured in best selling video games. The Valiant universe includes , among other original Valiant creations. In June of 1994, Valiant Comics was sold to Acclaim Entertainment for $65 million. Acclaim renamed the line Acclaim Comics in 1996. Their primary motivation was to make the properties more suitable for use in video game development. This created runaway video game successes out of the Shadowman & Turok properties. BANKRUPTCY In 2004, Acclaim filed for bankruptcy and shut down its offices. In 2005, Acclaim's Trustee auctioned off the rights for the original (non-Gold Key) Valiant characters as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. The characters auctioned included (but were not limited to) Archer & Armstrong, Armorines, Bloodshot, Doctor Tomorrow, Eternal Warrior, H.A.R.D. Corps, Harbinger, Ninjak, Quantum & Woody, Rai, Second Life of Dr. Mirage, Secret Weapons, Shadowman, Timewalker, Trinity Angels, Troublemakers and X-O Manowar. After a complicated and drawn out process that involved numerous parties, a group known as Valiant Entertainment were recognized as the new owners of the Valiant properties, despite not being the highest bidders, with a purchase price of approximately $1.5 million. As of May 2006 {Link without Title} , it has been announced that Disney Interactive (formerly known as Buena Vista Games ) will publish a new game in the Turok series, which means Disney Interactive somehow acquired the rights to the Turok character. Turok was originally a Gold Key Comics character, which means he was not included in the deal mentioned above. ACCLAIM'S LABELS
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