Acclaim pulls an Enron

[Great Rumbler]

The lawfirm of Cauley Geller Bowman Coates & Rudman is filing a class action lawsuit against Acclaim Entertainment on behalf of Acclaim's investors. The complaint alleges that Acclaim issued statements about the company's income and financial performance that were either misleading or false, and that investors suffered as a result.

Interestingly, listed in the information that Acclaim allegedly withheld from investors is information about the lagging sales of Turoc: Evolution (sic), and Aggressive Inline. The suit also says that by developing games like BMX XXX, the company severely limited its ability to get into retail channels that it needed to sell the games. Other issues the suit mentions include the company's inability to track certain important pieces of sales information, and that there was no basis for any optimism in any public statements made by Acclaim.

The crux of the complaint is that when Acclaim issued a statement that it was expecting to report an operating loss for the 4th quarter, shares dropped precipitously, losing almost 30% of their value in a single day. Basically, the suit says that this performance proves that Acclaim was lying about its financial health in earlier reports.

If you are an shareholder in Acclaim and bought shares between January 11th, 2002, and September 19th, 2002, you can go to the Cauley Geller website and file to be included in the complaint.

Lying to investors is definetly not a smart thing to do.

Planet Gamecube

[OB1]

If I were the master of the universe I'd make Acclaim go bankrupt and sell off all of their franchises to other companies. Let someone like Raven make Turok (and actually follow the story from the original comic instead of making up new stuff that sucks), and the guys who made the X-Box Buffy and Indy game make Shadowman 3. Or something. I haven't really thought this through.

[Nintendarse]

It looks like Acclaim is poisoned. Before N64, they were quite a sickly company on the verge of backruptcy. Turok and Extreme G (N64) seem to have only delayed the inevitable death of the company. Turok and Extreme G decline on N64. Turok Evolution is blatantly unfinished. Jeff Spangenberg leaves Acclaim after Turok 1, and starts up Retro, which develops 5 partly-finished, unpublishable games. Jeff is spotted having endless parties with scantily-clad women. Nintendo gets pissed that their investment has lead to 0 revenue for several years. Nintendo cracks down on the BS, and whips the company into shape. After the poison is cleansed, the company creates Metroid Prime.

+1 OB1's solution.

[Darunia]

It's sad to say, but Acclaim seems to be done...I agree. It hasn't put out much of an effort in so long....Turoks included, I can't think of a single good Acclaim game I've ever played. I think they should clean out house, open under a new name, and get serious.

[Great Rumbler]

Acclaim hasn't made any great games in a while. I don't think I even have any games from this generation that are made by them.

[OB1]

I'm a huge Turok fan and I did like Evolution more than any of the previous ones (especially Turok 3 which was crap for a Turok game), but it was terribly unfinished and obviously rushed. They also ruined the whole Valiant comics line when they bought them several years ago. I wish Dark Horse or somebody would buy the Valiant line back from Acclaim. They haven't published a regular comic in years.

I'd also like to see a good Shadowman sequel. Shadowman 2 wasn't bad, but it lacked a lot of the stuff that made the first one so great.

[Darunia]

Turok one was a well-conceived game, and for a launching N64 title, a masterful game. It didn't age well, and had no multiplayer. Turok 2 could've been a company-saving title, and indeed it was fun...but only the first level or two, and the multiplayer left much to be desired. I never even looked into the other Turoks.

[A Black Falcon]

Extreme-G 2 is, IMO, a really, really good racing game... its very high on my list of the best racing games ever (the slowdown-free PC-port version that is). Extreme-G 3 wasn't as good, but it was still a solid game... and XGRA looks like it might improve on it. Also, their All-Star Baseball games are great. Other than that I really don't care about anything they make, but that's enough to make me hope they don't die...