Alex Joseph, CEO recently resurrected confessionhas fond memories of the publisher from his youth. “I was definitely an Acclaim fan,” he says. “I think they did some great things, but also some not so great things.”
The New York-based publisher was a major player on consoles in the nineties, releasing hits like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Mortal Kombat and Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX. But the company went bankrupt in 2004, and stories from that time – such as the planned sequel to Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 3. eventually turned into an ominous commercial disaster BMX XXX. – create the impression of chaos behind the scenes. However, Josef doesn't want to dwell on the ignominious end of the old Acclaim. “It’s not for me to comment or worry about it,” he says.
New Recognition, on the other hand, is a tale of entrepreneurial opportunity. Josef has been working in the gaming industry since the late 1990s, initially in public relations, but along the way he has had side jobs in everything from real estate to a cheese and wine bar. “My brain moves a million miles an hour, and I'm a serial entrepreneur,” he says. “I work 18 hours a day.”
For example, the cheese and wine bar was “just a little hobby” along with Josef's day job in video game consulting and marketing. He founded VIM Global Consulting in 2009 and was CEO of an independent publisher. Graffiti Games from 2018 to 2022.
The Acclaim deal came together after Josef was approached by a handful of industry veterans. “We've been in the games industry for a long time, at least a couple of decades each, and we thought, 'What if we take our combined experience in publishing, licensing, development and marketing and see how we can apply that and revive a really iconic, cool brand?' And there were two or three that we thought about, that we looked at, and we just kept coming back to Acclaim.”
Josef isn't interested in other potential brands, but says Acclaim made the most sense as a revival candidate because of its brand associations. “We just love the atmosphere, the energy and the edge of the old Acclaim,” he says, adding that the plan is to pay homage to the publisher's heritage while introducing a new shift that will be “appealing to today's gamers.”
In those days, the recognition was, of course, harsh. The publisher gained a reputation for its wild marketing stunts, including asking people to pay fines for speeding during the release of Burnout 2, and saying it will pay the grieving families place an advertisement for ShadowMan 2 on the tombstone of your deceased relative. However, this is one aspect of Acclaim that Josef has no plans to bring back.
“I don’t think we’ll pay as much attention to stunting,” he says. “I'm a big fan of creative marketing. I mean, the gaming industry for me was all about PR and marketing, so I love anything that's creative, maybe stunted, but not stunted when it's tacky or someone could potentially get hurt or break the law. I think there is a way to do something creative without it being too over the top. So I think creative marketing campaigns will be a big part of what we do.”
Scattered IP
Josef says people have been “a lot of curiosity” since Acclaim's relaunch was announced in March, especially about whether we'll see a return to old Acclaim IP, which includes games like Fur Fighters, Re-Volt and Extreme-G 3. IP licensing in the first place. Then, when Acclaim split up, the rights to the games, which were 100% owned by it, were sold to various groups. Josef et al may own the Acclaim name, but the rights to the game franchises are long gone.
“All the IP just scattered to the wind,” Josef laments. “Some of these IP addresses simply cannot be accessed, there is no way to get them back.” However, he acknowledges that it may be possible to buy or license some other IP addresses associated with Acclaim. “It's not impossible,” he says. “We are in discussions with many interested parties regarding some legacy intellectual property. A lot of them are just crazy—it doesn't make sense from the standpoint of, “I don't know if we want to pay that much just for this.”
He adds that if they were able to acquire some of the old IP, the idea would be to find it from developers that are “really consistent and in sync with what that IP was.” But resurrecting old intellectual property “isn't really the goal” of the revived Acclaim, he stresses.
“I think our goal first and foremost is to focus on indie developers and demonstrate that we are going to support games no matter the budget. Don't be afraid to come and contact us if you have a game and think the budget is too small for Acclaim.” Josef says the publisher's strategy is to build a strong foundation and “don't put all your eggs in one basket” before seeking growth and taking on riskier projects.
“I don't think this is an environment where you want to take unnecessary risks. I'd like to have a job in a year, that's what I say all the time.”
Acclaim's strategy doesn't necessarily mean it's limited to small investments or experienced developers, Josef explains, noting that several of the projects in its books are from developers making their first commercial game. “It just means not being too speculative.”
He adds that they are looking for dedicated partners to collaborate with where Acclaim can add value to their game. “That's really important because ideally we're trying to build relationships with developers rather than just being transactional.”
Like many publishers in the current climate, Acclaim is keen to sign games that are already a worthy step in development. “It's a smart approach because you can't predict what's going to happen two or three years from now, and anything at that stage of concept development is too high a risk,” says Josef.
“When you start a company, you have to be very, very calculated and very judicious in the decisions you make about publishing, what games to publish and who to collaborate with. And late-stage games—games that are closer to launch and have a clear path to launch—are obviously much more desirable and make much more sense because there are much fewer odds.”
Indie focus
Acclaim recently published hissing coil showcases some of the published games, including the title “Chaotic Packet Delivery”. Tossing from Fer Factor and its hand-drawn roguelike action Poor guy from Potato Kid. But Josef adds that there are a couple of projects in development where they have lined up developers with licensed IP, although not the old Acclaim IP.
Josef reiterates that re-licensing older Acclaim titles may not necessarily be the best move for the newly revived publisher.
“The most important component is to make something that makes sense—and that means it makes sense in terms of timing, intellectual property, and investment. Just because it's an established IP of the past doesn't mean everyone wants to play it, doesn't mean it'll make a great game, and doesn't mean it's worth the money – and all of those things have to line up for it to make sense, otherwise what's the point of it?”
He adds that while some of Acclaim's older IPs are “definitely relevant and will resonate,” some of them are also “not very good, to be honest.”
With this in mind, it's worth asking: why buy the Acclaim brand at all?
“I like the brand itself,” Josef replies. “There were thoughts and conversations about, 'Well, maybe we'll just create something completely new.' But to have the power of the brand, to have people who are really knowledgeable and entrenched in this industry… You know, we don't come to this from some other industry and [going]”Hey, let's do Acclaim, that was an old iconic video game brand.” I think approaching this with a clear game plan, a clear strategy, and then with the intention of really growing and smartly developing the brand with great games is a really good way to go.
“And this brand is fantastic. He looks good. It sounds good. It is well positioned. I like a one word brand. It had everything and it made a lot of sense. I mean, we spent a lot of time walking back and forth and thinking about it. This wasn't just some easy, no-brainer, “Let's just go with the old brand.” There was a lot of thought that went into it.”
Atari under Wade Rosen has recently made some progress in reviving old brands and trading in nostalgia for retro games – but with the current lineup of games, Acclaim seems to be paying little attention to retro-ness. Josef counters that the recently relaunched publisher's tagline is “The past meets the future,” and that it's about “paying homage” to what came before while creating games with elements that fans will enjoy now and in the future.
However, it remains difficult to draw the line between acknowledging the past and acknowledging the present. When The Microprose brand was revived a few years agothere was an obvious continuum that resulted in the publisher's new version focusing on the same simulation games that the original company promoted in the 1980s and 1990s. The revived Acclaim, meanwhile, is targeting PC-focused indie games that bear little resemblance to the popular console action games that made the brand famous.
However, Josef is not bothered by the comparison. “I think we think there really should be more attention paid to some of the great indie creators, whether they're small or mid-sized,” he says. “We want to focus on indies. And at the end of the day, I think that's where you can help the most people or help the industry the most in terms of bringing more games to the forefront and helping them get noticed.”
“There are some of our games that I don't know where they would have gone – if we hadn't discovered them, I don't know if anyone else would have discovered them. And some of our games, a lot of people were watching them and we were really lucky and we did a really good job of just connecting with the developer why they should work with us and they felt the same way. And these were not new developers: they had experience, they had been making games for some time. So, no matter what, I think we're doing the right thing by being able to communicate our mission to developers so they'll want to work with us.”
