The Acclaim Brand Has Been Resurrected

We didn’t see this one coming, but we probably should have. There’s been a trend lately of new video game companies re-trademarking dead publishing brands from the 80s and 90s. A small indie studio is now using the TENGEN brand that once belonged to Namco, and it made others sit up and think “We can do that?” This week, someone actually decided to bring back Acclaim.

These aren’t small-time entrepreneurs though…..they’re investment men in ties with ambitious plans. Russell Binder at Striker Entertainment, Mark Caplan at Ridge Partners and Jeff Jarrett at Global Force Entertainment are listed among the team. Industry veteran Alex Josef has been picked as CEO. Also among the crowd, apparently, is two-time Hall of Fame wrestler Jeff Jarret.

“For more than three decades, I’ve had the privilege to have been a part of both the wrestling and gaming universes, and I’m thrilled to now be a partner in the revival of Acclaim, an iconic publisher known for releasing some of the most legendary games of the ‘80s and ‘90s,” said Jarrett. “From my early involvement with the publisher’s hit 16-bit WWF titles to my experience helping shape the TNA Wrestling series, which spawned the first video game wrestler to become a full-time roster member in the Squared Circle, I’ve seen firsthand the type of impact great games can have on players and fans. Resurrecting Acclaim is an opportunity to impart the same degree of passion and love to a new generation, and I’m excited to be involved.”

If we’d seen the Acclaim brand up for grabs, we don’t know if we would have necessarily touched it. While it’s highs are very high, its lows are very low. Yes, Acclaim published the original Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam. They also parted ways with Midway and attempted to continue the NBA Jam brand on their own to disastrous results, while Midway’s sequel-in-all-but-name NBA Hang Time became another hit. Acclaim was also another one of those places known for buying hot new IPs and churning out lousy games based on them — ask anyone who owned Bart Vs. The Space Mutants on NES or South Park on N64.  They also made BMX XXX and that alone makes them worthy of being buried forever.

But they’re back…sort of. No one knows yet what they’re going to make; the majority of Acclaim’s games were licensed properties that now belong to others. Mortal Kombat belongs to Warner Bros; NBA Jam belongs to someone else. They could have instantly turned heads by announcing a new Shadow Man, but someone else already beat them to that IP. It takes more than just a brand to succeed, but that’s a lesson business types almost never learn.