video game company . for the mmog developer see acclaim games . acclaim entertainment inc. former type public traded as nasdaq aklm industry interactive entertainment fate bankruptcy successor acclaim games founded 1987 ; 29 years ago 1987 founder greg fischbach defunct september 1 2004 2004 09 01 headquarters glen cove new york u.s. area served worldwide key people greg fischbach ceo products video games comic books number of employees 800 2001 1 subsidiaries iguana entertainment probe entertainment sculptured software valiant comics website acclaim.com acclaim entertainment stylized as a laim was an american video game developer and publisher . it developed published marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms including mega drive genesis saturn dreamcast and game gear nintendo entertainment system super nes nintendo 64 gamecube game boy game boy color and game boy advance playstation and playstation 2 xbox personal computer systems and arcade games . they also released video games for the master system in europe . after acclaim entertainment s 2004 demise the acclaim brand and logotype were purchased by the unrelated company acclaim games defunct from august 27 2010 . canadian video game publisher throwback entertainment acquired more than 150 titles from acclaim s video game library . in july 2010 wego interactive co. ltd. based in seoul south korea purchased all ip related with re volt rc revenge pro rc de go from throwback entertainment . 2 contents 1 history 2 controversies 3 subsidiaries 3.1 studios 3.2 labels 4 games 5 headquarters 6 references 7 external links history edit founded in 1987 as a delaware corporation acclaim maintained operations in the united states the united kingdom germany france spain australia and japan . 3 in its initial years acclaim was exclusively a video game publisher either farming out 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 ; probe entertainment of london england ; and sculptured software of salt lake city utah . 4 5 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 . 6 many of acclaim s products used licenses from popular comics television series and movies . 7 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 publication didn t have an american branch such as techn s japan s double dragon ii the revenge and taito s bust a move series . in the 1990s sunsoft joined forces with acclaim entertainment to handle ad sales rights to sunsoft s video games for game consoles . 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 refactoring of the dave mirra s freestyle bmx series . in june 1994 the company switched from video gaming to a media conglomerate . through much of the 1990s acclaim were one of the successful publishers of console video games in the world . in the financial year ending august 1994 they saw a profit of 481 million and exceeded this figure the following year . 7 in 1995 the company acquired sculptured software iguana entertainment and probe entertainment and the companies switched to the first party development studio known as acclaim studios from 1999 to 2004 . 5 the company also had a motion capture studio built into their headquarters making them the first video game company to have an in house motion capture studio . 8 a less significant aspect of acclaim s business was the development and publication of strategy guides relating to their software products and the issuance of special edition comic magazines via acclaim comics to support the more lucrative brand names . lastly they created the asf amc motion capture format which is still in use in the industry today . 9 acclaim enjoyed a long relationship with the world wrestling federation dating back to 1988 s wwf wrestlemania . however after failing to match the success of world championship wrestling s thq aki games amidst the monday night wars the wwf unexpectedly defected to thq in 1999 . acclaim then picked up the license to extreme championship wrestling and released two games for the company . ecw declared bankruptcy in 2001 while still owing acclaim money . the game publisher would release three wrestling titles under the legends of wrestling banner in the throes of its final years . 10 in 2001 probe entertainment became acclaim cheltenham . 11 in may 2002 acclaim bought most of the assets of the software creations studio and established a new development company known as acclaim studios manchester . 12 in december 2002 acclaim closed its salt lake city studio formerly veteran developer sculptured software . 13 acclaim suffered financial problems in 2004 the result of poor sales of its video game titles . 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 kung faux and made man . on september 1 2004 acclaim filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy with the united states bankruptcy court for the eastern district of new york which would virtually annihilate their company in liquidating all possible assets to pay off their debt which reportedly tops usd 100 million . 14 an attempt to reopen the cheltenham and manchester studios in october 2004 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 was aimed at the us and uk preteen multiplayer markets . however the second iteration of acclaim did not go well due to connectivity and payment issues for their online games along with a lack of action against dishonest players earning that iteration of the company an f grade from the los angeles southern california better business bureau . 15 in 2006 throwback entertainment a video game company that had once considered acquiring acclaim entertainment announced that it had purchased more than 50 of acclaim s games and vowed to bring such titles as re volt extreme g gladiator sword of vengeance vexx fur fighters and many other franchises into the next generation and beyond . 16 in july 2010 wego interactive co. ltd based in seoul south korea acquired all ip related with re volt rc revenge pro rc de go from throwback entertainment . 2 controversies edit during acclaim s decline towards bankruptcy steve perry an executive from the company s british division made several controversial business and marketing decisions . one example was a promise that a us 10 000 6000 prize would be awarded to uk parents who would name their baby turok to promote the release of turok evolution . 17 another was an attempt to buy advertising space on actual tombstones for shadow man 2econd coming . 17 in the stateside acclaim suffered multiple lawsuits a portion of them with former partners . mary kate and ashley olsen sued over unpaid royalties . 18 in the last iteration of the bmx series bmx xxx semi nude nude and pornographic content e.g. full motion video of strippers and nude female riders was added in hopes of boosting sales . 19 however like most of acclaim s video games during its final years bmx xxx sold poorly and was derided for its sexual content and poor gameplay . dave mirra himself publicly disowned the game stating that he was not involved in the decision to include nudity and he sued acclaim for fear of being associated with bmx xxx . 20 another lawsuit was from acclaim s own investors claiming that acclaim management had published misleading financial reports . 19 subsidiaries edit studios edit acclaim comics in new york new york founded in 1989 as valiant comics acquired in june 1994 . acclaim studios austin founded sunnyvale california as iguana entertainment on august 14 1991 acquired 1995 . acclaim studios cheltenham in croydon england founded as probe software in 1984 acquired october 10 1995 . acclaim studios manchester in manchester england founded as software creations uk in 1987 acquired may 2002 . acclaim studios salt lake city founded as sculptured software in 1984 acquired october 9 1995 . acclaim studios teesside founded teesside england as optimus software in 1988 acquired by iguana entertainment in 1993 subsequently acquired by acclaim in 1995 . labels edit arena entertainment founded as mirrorsoft acquired in 1992 discontinued in 1994 . acclaim max sports launched in 2000 renamed aka acclaim in 2002 acclaim sports launched in 1997 discontinued in 2003 aka acclaim athletes kick ass launched in 2002 discontinued in 2003 club acclaim launched in 1999 discontinued in 2004 flying edge in glen cove new york started in 1991 discontinued in 1994 . ljn founded in 1970 acquired in 1988 closed in 1994 . brand briefly revived in 2000 . games edit name release date platform s ref s 18 wheeler american pro trucker 000000002002 01 01 00002002 nintendo gamecube citation needed 000000002001 01 01 00002001 playstation 2 citation needed afl live 2003 000000002 002 01 01 00002002 playstation 2 citation needed windows citation needed xbox citation needed afl live 2004 000000002 003 01 01 00002003 playstation 2 citation needed windows citation needed xbox citation needed afl live premiership edition 000000002004 01 01 00002004 playstation 2 citation needed windows citation needed xbox citation needed alias 000000002004 01 01 00002004 playstation 2 citation needed mobile citation needed windows citation needed xbox citation needed alien 3 000000001992 01 01 00001992 amiga citation needed 000000001992 01 01 00001992 commodore 64 citation needed 000000001993 01 01 00001993 nintendo entertainment system citation needed 000000001994 01 01 00001994 game gear citation needed 000000001993 01 01 00001993 mega drive genesis citation needed 000000001992 01 01 00001992 master system citation needed alien trilogy 000000001996 01 01 00001996 playstation 2 citation needed sega saturn citation needed playstation citation needed all star baseball 97 000000001 997 01 01 00001997 playstation citation needed sega saturn citation needed all star baseball 99 000000001 998 01 01 00001998 nintendo 64 citation needed game boy citation needed all star baseball 2000 000000001 999 01 01 00001999 nintendo 64 citation needed game boy color citation needed all star baseball 2001 000000002 000 01 01 00002000 nintendo 64 citation needed game boy color citation needed all star baseball 2002 000000002 001 01 01 00002001 nintendo gamecube citation needed playstation 2 citation needed all star baseball 2003 000000002 002 01 01 00002002 game boy advance citation needed nintendo gamecube citation needed playstation 2 citation needed xbox citation needed all star baseball 2004 000000002 003 01 01 00002003 game boy advance citation needed nintendo gamecube citation needed playstation 2 citation needed xbox citation needed all star baseball 2005 000000002 004 01 01 00002004 playstation 2 citation needed xbox citation needed atv quad power racing 2 000000002003 01 01 00002003 game boy advance citation needed nintendo gamecube citation needed playstation 2 citation needed xbox citation needed armorines project s.w.a.r.m. 000000001999 01 01 00001999