Acclaim, the publisher behind some of the biggest commercial hits of the 1990s, was recently resurrected – but, as many people were at pains to point out when the announcement was made a while back, the name is the only thing that's back, as Acclaim's IP was sold off when the company went bust over 20 years ago.
Acclaim was responsible for bringing licenses such as Mortal Kombat, The Simpsons and WWF/WWE to home consoles and handhelds, but those properties were never owned by the company, so don't expect to see Acclaim returning to any of those commercial cash cows in the near future.
Even the IP that Acclaim owned is unlikely to return to the brand, as new CEO Alex Josef tells GamesIndustry.biz:
"All of the IP just scattered in the wind. Some of that IP, there's just no access to it, no ability to get that back."
Josef is keen to add that it's not entirely "off the table" and that there's a chance that Acclaim could potentially reacquire some of the classic IP it was forced to sell off when it went bankrupt in 2004. "We are talking with a lot of the stakeholders for some of the old IP," he admits. "A lot of it is just kind of crazy – it doesn't make sense in terms of, 'I don't know if we want to look at paying that much just for this'."
The CEO feels that returning to past glories is "really not the objective" of the new Acclaim:
"I think the objective first and foremost is a heavy focus on indie creators and demonstrating that we're going to get behind games, regardless of budgets. Don't be afraid to come and approach us if you have a game and you think the budget's too small for Acclaim. I don't think this is an environment where you want to be taking unnecessary risks. I'd like to have a job in a year, that's what I keep saying."
In fact, Josef is refreshingly honest about the reputation of Acclaim, saying that, while he's aware some of the old titles will "resonate" with players, some of it was also "not great, truth be told."
You might ponder, then, why it was worth going to the trouble of resurrecting Acclaim in the first place? Josef says he "loves" the brand, before adding:
"There were thoughts and talks about, like, 'Well, maybe we just spin up something totally brand new'. But having the power of a brand, having people that are really well-versed and entrenched in this industry… You know, we're not coming at this from some other industry and [going], 'Hey, let's do Acclaim, that was an old iconic video game brand'. I think coming at it with a clear game plan, a clear strategy, and then with the intention to really grow and develop the brand in an intelligent manner with great games is a really good way to go.
And the brand is fantastic. It looks good. It sounds good. It places well. I love just a single-word brand. This had everything, and it just made a lot of sense. I mean, we spent a lot of time going back and forth and thinking about it. This wasn't just some easy, light decision – 'Let's just get an old brand'. There was a lot of thought that went into it."