Acclaim Entertainment Files for Bankruptcy

Prof. Jonathan Ezor, Touro Law Center writes "According to this story in Long Island Business News, Acclaim Entertainment has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the Eastern District of New York bankruptcy court, meaning it will liquidate its assets and shut down. The story states in part, 'Computer game maker Acclaim Entertainment (Nasdaq: AKLM) has filed for voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would result in the liquidation of the company's assets. The company filed papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip that estimated its debts at more than $100 million and its assets at $10 million to $50 million. The filing said it had more than 200 creditors.' Game Over."

Re:Creditor info...

[Detritus]

I think you need to talk to the clerk of the bankruptcy court for the proper forms. If you are listed in the company's records as a creditor, they may already have you on a mailing list for more details on the bankruptcy and how to proceed.

Re:Mortal Combat

[illuminata]

Mortal Kombat is in safe enough hands as Midway is the developer. Acclaim just played publisher for a bit (MK I and II home releases). MK Deception will not be affected by this.

On a side note, way to be late with this story Slashdot.

Re:Acclaim lost it years ago

[Babbster]

The management team never even had the decency to tell them they were no longer employed.

There can be legal issues involved with letting a bankruptcy cat out of the bag at the wrong time, especially with a publicly traded company. It's certainly a shame for the employees but they've known for a long time that Acclaim was operating hand to mouth at best.

Re:Acclaim lost it years ago

[Anonymous Coward]

let's see now,
1. Not paying rent for several months,
2. Paying employees THEN pulling the money back out
3. Closing all the offices in the U.K.
4. Closing Glen Cove
5. Not paying any external agencies they're working with (for months)
6. Getting sued by Mary Kate & Ashley
7. Not getting new financing


Now, what kind of cat is this they're not trying to let out? A Lion?

Re:Game publishers

[unclethursday]

Vivendi owns Sierra, you know. And Vivendi was looking to dump it's game division a while back, and may still be looking to do it.

The two largest third party publishers in the market are EA and Activision. Not EA and Vivendi Universal.

good riddens...

[Anonymous Coward]

I won't miss Acclaim at all. They acquired and then ruined one of the best independent comic book companies ever, Valiant. Shortly after purchasing the comic book company, they changed all the writers and artists, ran all the books into the ground and then canceled them. All this just to get the rights to make a few Turok games.

Not only did this really piss off loyal readers such as myself, it contributed to the comic book market crash, completely ruining the value of all of Valiant's back issues. :-(

Acclaim family tree

[Anonymous Coward]

It's true that Turok was developed by Iguana and published by Acclaim. Iguana was based in Austin and joined forces with Optimus, a British developer located in sunny Middlesbrough, who also adopted the Iguana name. Acclaim acquired both of these, which became Acclaim Studios Teesside and Acclaim Studios Austin. Teesside was closed in 2002, citing reasons such as centralizing development at Cheltenham, then kicked everyone while they were down by buying Software Creations to form Acclaim Studios Manchester, all in the same month.

Spare a thought for the hundreds of families in Austin, Cheltenham and Manchester, especially those who'd just uprooted and moved from Teesside to Cheltenham, now desperately seeking alternative employment.