Old-school game publisher Acclaim is coming back. In its announcement, the publisher has said that it will be focusing on supporting new indie developers, as well as try and bring back some of its classic franchises. The second part is an especially important goal for the revitalised Acclaim, with the company wanting to bring back some of its classic IPs to modern audiences.
The new version of Acclaim has an advisory board that is being headed up by gaming industry veterans, including Russell Binder of Striker Entertainment, Mark Caplan of Ridge Partners, and professional wrestler Jeff Jarrett of Global Force Entertainment.
To kick things off, Acclaim will be supported by partners like VaynerFund’s Phil Toronto and JET Management’s Eric Vogel. The company itself will be headed up by CEO Alex Josef, who has experience with game publishing and marketing for more than two decades across PC, console and mobile.
“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 in a statement on the press release.
“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.”
“It’s an absolute honor and pleasure to be leading the charge in bringing Acclaim back to the forefront of the games industry,” said Josef, “We’re fortunate that we have an extremely talented team and that we’ve already signed some incredible indie titles, which we’ll be revealing soon.”
Acclaim hasn’t yet announced what its first few steps in the industry will be. Considering its focus on bringing back classic titles, however, we might start seeing some remasters or even remakes of classic likes PS2-era platformer Vexx, RC racing title Re-Volt, and any number of various sports games the company’s previous incarnation had worked on, including pro-wrestling games like WWF Warzone or basketball game NBA Jam 99.
For some context, Acclaim, founded in 1987, had been quite prolific in publishing both third-party titles on various platforms, as well as titles developed by subsidiary development studios it owned. The company started facing quite a bit of financial hardships during the early 00s, however, and had to declare bankruptcy by 2004. This resulted in the closure of the company and several of its old IPs being sold to cover its debts.
