Quarterback Club To Ship with Albert's Play-by-Play

Acclaim's upcoming N64 title NFL Quarterback Club '98 will ship with the play-by-play voice-over of Marv Albert, the company confirmed to GameSpot News late Friday.

Should the game prove to be a popular success and merit an additional manufacturing run, the company will reevaluate it's position regarding the use of Albert's voice on the game, however.

On Friday, Acclaim was in the process formulating a public statement addressing its continued use of Albert for color commentary on the QB Club '98 title. Acclaim released the following statement-in-progress to GameSpot News on Friday emphasizing that company attorneys had yet to sign off on its wording.

"In order to meet our commitments, NFL Quarterback Club '98 went into production prior to the start of the trial and does include play-by-play by Mr. Albert. Acclaim's decision to keep Mr. Albert's voice in the game was directly based on Mr. Albert's assurance of his innocence to our company"

The company said an official statement would be released soon - likely on Monday.

According to Acclaim, the cartridge is in the final stage of manufacturing in Japan and there is absolutely no alternative to seeing that process through to completion.

Just hours after entering a plea of guilty on Thursday, Albert was fired from NBC. That same day he resigned his position with the MSG Network. According to Acclaim, a morals clause in Albert's multigame contract with it would trigger an option to dissolve the Albert-Acclaim relationship if he were ever convicted of a crime.

Debate continues on the chances of Albert rehabilitating his career as a sports broadcaster given the recent conviction and many details about his private life which surfaced during courtroom testimony.

Acclaim indicated it would likely seek another voice-over should Quarterback Club '98 require a second round of manufacturing.