Buy a Piece of Acclaim

An anonymous reader writes "Kotaku points to the official auction site for Acclaim, the game publisher that was. The Auction includes the building and everything that was in it, including arcade games, boardroom tables, an odd collection of football helmets and 43,000 copies of video games." Our previous story of their bankruptcy.

Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Dancin_Santa]

You'd buy this, but you wouldn't pay for their games. Any quick search of Google turns up loads of cracks and warez for their games. It's been that way for a long time.

It's hard for a company to make money selling games, when perfect duplication is possible and people are willing to break the law to circumvent copy protection systems.

I don't care what you may think about their games, but you have to admit that it takes some seriously warped thinking to believe that destroying companies like this actually helps the software industry. Pay for the stuff you value. This isn't a zero-sum game we are playing, it is actually a game in which everyone is better off when we treat creators with the respect they deserve.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Which is why ID software is going out of business so quickly... right?

Oh, wait, its because their products fucking rock, and Acclaim's sucked ass.

They failed of their own accord.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[John Gaming Target]

You realize that console piracy (Acclaim's main business) is no longer that prevalent right?

Sure it happens, but one of the big plues of gaming going mainstream is that most console owners don't even know where to find pirated games or how to make them work.

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[kungfuSiR]

I'd have to agree that most of the stuff acclaim has been putting out is crap. However stealing something and saying you are stealing it because it is crap does not justify your actions. Either buy it and then say how crappy it is, or just stay away and let the company go down in flames the right way. Although i'm sure Acclaim went south because of mis management more then people stealing their games.

If only EA could go tits up as well

[Nine Tenths of The W]

Given their habit of buying some of the most innovative and successful studios (Bullfrog, Origin, Maxis) and gutting them, I can't help thinking it would be a good thing for gaming if they went under

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[stienman]

Are you making the claim that if their games were not pirated Acclaim would not have failed?

I don't agree with piracy (though, for a variety of personal reasons, I hate protection schemes that require the disk to play, or activation over the internet), but that is part of the business of computer software, like it or not. If Acclaim truly failed because of piracy, then it's due to them underestimating the extent of the piracy, or not taking proper precautions. There is no perfect solution to piracy, so any reasonable business plan must include its effects.

As far as treating the 'creators with the respect they deserve' do you also believe that video game companies should treat the creators with the respect they deserve? And what, pray tell, respect do these various creators deserve, exactly?

-Adam

Re:Also check out: - DO NOT CHECK OUT h4xx!

[JohnBaleshiski]

Why people think this is funny or cool is beyond me. And why someone modded the post informative is also beyond me. Firefox "prevented 5973 popups" on that site. In addition, it's just a goatse.cx picture.

AVOID.

Blame the customer

[Penguinoflight]

I had mod points, but your argument needs a apposing view more than it needs to be silenced.

I noticed you talked about respecting the game maker, and then about cracks. Why would anyone need a crack, if the game maker respected their customers?

I've been a proud supporter of Epic Games with their releases UT, Unreal2, and UT2004, mostly because I trust them. They will come out with a good game, but it will also be non-intrusive.

I really like a game company with the Nokia "small share of big market is better than big share of small market" attitude. Before Cd burners, I never saw cracks, or anti developer sentiment, but ever since people started "stealing" games, the game developers have been working harder to make sure the game is theftproof than worth buying.

The end result of a theft protection first attitude is a game that doesn't work whether or not it's legit.

Copy protection is even more frustrating on linux, or another non-ms OS, None of the cd protected games work with wine, and hardly any work with winex either.

Re:Accalim?

[tomhudson]

All of us regulars saw it, and the other one that was posted twice an hour apart ...

I swear, in 99.99 percent of businesses, if people ran things this way then heads would roll pretty damn fast.

Guess you haven't been to some of the places I've worked. Or that my friends have worked at :-)

I have a theory that there's a Peter Principle for whole business sectors, not just for people in organizations. Whole business sectors "rise to their level of incompetence", and the only reason they continue to exist is that everyone else is in the same boat. It would certainly explain why Ford is still in business ... ditto Martha Stewart OmniwhateverthefuckMedia.

Anyway, it's just a theory ...

Re:Done in by the people who would buy this stuff

[barc0001]

Either buy it and then say how crappy it is, or just stay away and let the company go down in flames the right way

You DO know there is a third option, right? "Try" out the game, and if it's good, buy it to show support for a good game.

Re:Possible to by source code?

[Registered Coward v2]

looked at the site, but saw no mentions of source code / "IP" sale. Does anyone know if it is possible to buy some of their IP, and in that case, maybe the open source community could do a blender for some nice classics? :)


Quality aside, even if you can buy the IP you might be severely limited in what you can do with it, at least in terms of releasing the games. They may not own th erights to characters, etc; so releasing the games would require obtaining those rights as well.

Re:did the employees get their stuff back?

[mmaddox]

Federal "Martials?" That puts an interesting spin on the term. It's normally "marshals," but I like that. Of course, Maritals would be interesting, too.