Acclaim artifacts up for auction

  • By Curt Feldman, GameSpot
  • Posted Dec 7, 2005 10:21 am PT

Games that marked the rise and fall of once-proud publisher collect mostly dust in auctioneer's bin.

It has come down to this: Arch Rivals Basket-Brawl, Battle Monsters, Bart's Nightmare, Fortress of Fear, Adventures of Mary Kate & Ashley, all up for grabs to the highest bidder--if there are any bidders, that is.

Such is the situation in Oceanside, New York, where a court-appointed trustee opened the files on these and almost 300 other Acclaim games. Parties interested in bidding on a piece of history--the remaining dribs and drabs of value once connected with Acclaim Entertainment--are welcome to do so, although what they will actually walk away with isn't clear.

The trustee, Allan B. Mendelsohn, appointed by the Long Island Bankruptcy Court to liquidate remaining Acclaim assets, has put Acclaim's rights, title, and interest--"if any," he told GameSpot--on the auction block. Today is the second of two days of inspection, which translates to opening the physical business files of Acclaim to interested parties. But as to the values of the games, Mendelsohn advocates that the buyer beware.

"We're not making any warranties," Mendelsohn told GameSpot.

Acclaim filed for bankruptcy on September 1, 2004, leaving debts that exceeded $100 million. The US Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip, New York, put Mendelsohn in charge of taking what assets remained of the company, converting those assets' value into cash, and conveying that cash to Acclaim creditors who came up empty-handed when the game publisher spiraled into arrears and insolvency.

The sale of these nearly 300 games isn't exactly a clean-room operation, Mendelsohn added. "There are so many components and licensing rights and publishing rights attached to each game that it would be virtually impossible for me to go through the 300 games [and unravel the rights]."

It will be up to the buyer to do his or her own due diligence to see if a valid license travels with the sale. If, for example, a wrestling game uses the likenesses of 20 wrestlers, the buyer will need to research the status of the contracts previously signed by then-Acclaim representatives and third parties. Royalties could still be owed and elements of the contract may no longer be in effect.

"The books and records [of Acclaim] weren't the cleanest when we got there," Mendelsohn said.

A few current high bids include $5,000 for Crazy Taxi, $40,000 for the Re-Volt series, $25,000 for Mr. Domino, and $75,000 for XGRA: Extreme G Racing, Extreme G, and Extreme G2.

Auctioneer David R. Maltz has the full list of game rights up for auction.

39 Comments

  • chaos386

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 5:55 am PT

    I wonder if this means that my old Acclaim games will be more valuable now?

  • Canus_Shamus

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 4:04 am PT

    Crazy Taxi is at 5K, but Mr. Domino is at 25K?

    ...What universe is this?

  • mamftt

    Posted Dec 12, 2005 12:06 am PT

    RETRACT OF THAT! no one can stop Mr. Domino you infidel!

  • ProsserBoy

    Posted Dec 11, 2005 1:19 pm PT

    Somebody buy Crazi Taxi for someone as a Christmas gift.

  • iamsouledge

    Posted Dec 10, 2005 10:59 am PT

    At least no one's picking up Ecco the Dolphin.....

  • iamsouledge

    Posted Dec 10, 2005 10:54 am PT

    *sniff* "The Red Star" isn't on the auction list.....*sniffle*

  • SubSane0

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 1:51 pm PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • Gigagamer2

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 9:38 am PT

    please let there be another Extreme g game, and it had better be good. it was one of acclaims good titles (not that there were that many)

  • AGG1

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 8:23 am PT

    What are you talking about, macmaster1? Those MK&A games were among the few that actually WERE profitable for Acclaim, toward the end there. Not all consumers are pre-pubescent misogynists who require lots of gratuitous violence to bolster their own anemic sense of masculinity. Little girls play games too. If those MK&A were all losing money for Acclaim, why do you think they kept publishing them?

  • Mooshu92887

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 4:28 am PT

    What about "The Red Star?" That game looked sweet, why isnt that up for auction?

  • gmrgirl68

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 12:25 am PT

    NNNOOO, I wanted another bard's tale, the last one that came out was really funny, and imagine it on a next gen console

  • David_W

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 9:41 pm PT

    I love you acclaim.

  • jerico6

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 9:14 pm PT

    We'll miss you acclaim... NOT!!

  • mezonesxbox

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 9:02 pm PT

    GooD!! No more Tourok Games! YeSS!!!!

  • YukoAsho

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 5:16 pm PT

    ranger - Acclaim did this to themselves, so don't start spouting off the baseless paranoia that the "hardcore" fans often spew.

    What I really want to know is this: if no one picks up the liscences that were exclusively Acclaim's, such as Extreme G, do they become public domain? Or do the creditors assume the rights? And what do they DO with the rights if that's the case.

  • LordOfMidnight

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 5:07 pm PT

    Shame to see this... history up for auction... things that once meant something reduced to monitary value. And so it goes...

  • ZEELIX

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 5:04 pm PT

    dude i loved xgra. and mary kate, mr domino, crazy taxi sound lame but what about turok did some other company get it? also i as wonderin what the last rampage was with. i think im gonna miss and yet be glad acclaim is gone. still this sucks.
    off the topic i hope sega comes out with a new console hence they host the olympics for 2008. i dont wnat sega to die that would be the worst.

  • ranger_waha

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 4:38 pm PT

    They won't be the last, mark my word, the larger dev. companies are pushing the smaller ones out of the market.

  • macmaster1

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 3:18 pm PT

    Come on, to make a MaryKate and Ashley game you couldnt be expecting to make money. You have to be dumb or maybe the person that made the decision fell on his head that day. Come to think of it, maybe he fell on his head twice and then got ran over a bus. Marykate and Ashley... lol. They deserved to go out of buisness.

  • rottenskater

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 3:12 pm PT

    i could get most of those games for like $5 here lol

  • umbrae

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 2:34 pm PT

    Arch Rivals Basket-Brawl, Battle Monsters, Bart's Nightmare, Fortress of Fear, Adventures of Mary Kate & Ashley... I am sure there will be tons standing in line. *crickets*

  • snarple_basic

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 2:09 pm PT

    GreyFoxV1 not true, problem was they didn't know how to put some money and make some commercials for those games. They had 1 & 2 and they both sold horrible but were just as good as EA's published 3rd game. And i bet the reason for Crazy Taxi being only $5000 is probably because Sega probably has to much ownership on that game. I would bet all you could do with that license of CT is rerease it on some other consoles, but no sequals i would think.

  • dmn_link

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 2:00 pm PT

    I think i'm, gonna buy Crazy Taxi, lol.

  • madgamer2000

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 1:59 pm PT

    I wonder how much bmx xxx is going for? You could buy it, and the rights the the marykate and ashley games and have a freestyle BMX mystery solving boobie adventure.

  • homsuplo75

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 1:49 pm PT

    Crazy Taxi for $5000!?!?!? That's it!! I can't imagine Mr. Domino outselling CT. That just doesn't seem right. Maybe it's a typo.

  • GreyFoxV1

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 1:38 pm PT

    Man acclaim wouldnt of had this problem if they kept the Burnout series, this is indeed a sad day.

  • jnealg

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 1:07 pm PT

    man I hope someone gets all the rights to re-volt. The Xbox live beta test version was great!

  • LordDeArnise

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 1:06 pm PT

    Hardly any of those old Acclaim games have any significant value for the creditors to salvage. Still, you can't blame them for salvaging whatever cash they can get, because to those creditors, cash received is cash earned; business is business.

    And wasn't Crazy Taxi a Sega game? Why would it involve Acclaim?

    And yeah, EvanSkanes, the auctioneer doesn't sound too pleased about this particular task mostly because of all the licensing stuff associated with Acclaim's old WWE games.

  • piglets_ghost

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 1:02 pm PT

    With games like this, it's no wonder they've gone bankrupt. If I had the money, I'd buy these titles up just to make sure they will never be made again.

    Adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley? lol

  • Zorak000

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 12:42 pm PT

    I wonder if I could get something for 1$...

  • veratronator

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 12:06 pm PT

    I would buy crazy taxi that game was awesome. to bad for the company thought

  • BIGDeVriendt

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 12:05 pm PT

    ewww all horrorible games NOT WORTH A PENNY FOR ANY OF THEM!

  • Gigagamer2

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 11:59 am PT

    i hope the XG series gets a good home and an even better sequel

  • yboucher

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 11:43 am PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • Jimbokundesu

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 11:04 am PT

    you could buy the rights for 100 bullets, then hire someone to finish the bloody thing

  • Artikay

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 10:41 am PT

    LoL @ Donkeljohn.

  • EvanSkanes

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 10:33 am PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • remaGloohcSdlO

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 10:29 am PT

    Sad... it's always sad when this has to happen. Crazy Taxi at $5,000???

  • Donkeljohn Site moderator

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 10:28 am PT

    So for $25,000 I could conceivably stop Mr. Domino?

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