Acclaim Nearing Bankruptcy

To say Nintendo systems aren't profitable to third parties is laughable. Bad games sell more briskly on PS2 and Xbox for some reason (almost all Acclaim games). Acclaim's most recent good game (Burnout 2) sold over 200,000 copies on Cube, only 210,000 on Xbox with the Xbox version being clearly labeled as the updated, superior version. When companies make bad games, and those bad games don't sell on a particular system, by ceasing all development on that system you just piss people off because you're placing the failure on the console's userbase and not your own shitty product.

Just about everything Sega puts on Cube sells through the roof. Sonic Heroes came out for all three consoles, the Cube version smoked the other 2 in sales. Soul Calibur 2 on Cube outsold both the Xbox and PS2 versions! A Namco 3d fighting game on Cube sold more than on PS2 and you're saying third parties can't make money on Cube games??

The difference between the Cube market and the PS2/Xbox market is this: Nintendo consistently makes awesome games and markets them heavily. A third party game on Cube has to compete with great first party games that get big marketing budgets. Sony and Microsoft's landscapes are more wide open, it's not so cut and dry where most gamers will spend their dollars. This means a bad game has a better chance to sell on those systems, but it also means the Cube market is in the habit of buying heavily marketed games that wind up being great. If you make a great game and market it well, you're going to usually pull huge Cube numbers.

The bottom line is this: All these companies that stop Cube development are companies that make a living pumping out bad games. Acclaim? Midway? After Midway Arcade Treasures 2 comes out Midway can drop dead.

P.S. Midway made a FORTUNE selling horrible games on N64

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Originally Posted by Opaque

Now if only Midway would die.

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Not until they publish Shadow Hearts 2, fucker!

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Originally Posted by Opaque

Now if only Midway would die.

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No thanks. They're at least good for classic compilations.

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Originally Posted by ShineAqua

Not until they publish Shadow Hearts 2, fucker!

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Someone else can make that game for them.

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

No thanks. They're at least good for classic compilations.

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Someone else can compilate their old games for them.

SpoDaddy, its not a matter of how much they sell. Im not surprised that a stupid children's game like Sonic Heroes sold the most on the Cube, but the big question is, at what cost? Nintendo charges higher fees to its third parties than Sony or Microsoft, and its propietary disc format lets them exercise more control. Which they do. Which they've always done, since the days of the NES. So Im almost positive that the game that sold 210,000 copies on the Xbox made a lot more money than the game that sold 200,000 copies on the GameCube.

Look, Spo, there's no massive conspiracy against GameCube and Nintendo in the industry. If it made money for the publishers like the PS2/Xbox do then developers would support it as much.

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The bottom line is this: All these companies that stop Cube development are companies that make a living pumping out bad games. Acclaim? Midway? After Midway Arcade Treasures 2 comes out Midway can drop dead.

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Look at EA. Their support hasn't stopped, but its been slowed to a trickle.

This is almost too good to be true. When Acclaim officially drops dead and goes the way of 3DO, THEN I will do the Happy Dance.

Next up on the chopping block, THQ.

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Originally Posted by AstroBlue

If they didn't spend all their money on controversial advertisement...

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I spent most of the 90s deeply regretting changing my name to Wizards & Warriors.

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Originally Posted by SpoDaddy

To say Nintendo systems aren't profitable to third parties is laughable.

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Let me see if I understand your thesis.

GC games don't sell well because they have to compete against Nintendo's games & marketing budget, even though there are numerically more games that score just as well or better than Nintendo's on other systems, and MS and Sony both have larger marketing budgets.

Only publishers of bad games pull out of GC development, like say, Konami, Sega, Capcom, Lucasarts, Rockstar.

Soul Calibur 2, the only fighting game on the Gamecube featuring a Nintendo's biggest character sold better than Soul Calibur 2 featuring that one guy from Tekken. Therefore Gamecube 3rd party games sell better even though that's essentially one of 3 instances in which a multiplatform game did better on GC stacked against 70 instances where they didn't.

Bad games sell better on other systems, but Sonic Heroes did best on GC.

As I'm sure you're aware, what you're saying doesn't make alot of sense, as borne out by, y'know, reality. If companies, thought they could make money off of GC, believe me, they'd be there. There's so much risk in this industry that nobody would drop a profitable revenue stream unless you put a gun to their head. Obviously, that doesn't describe the GC market.


Bleh. I'm gonna go play Ninja Gaiden again. Have fun with Digimon & Catwoman.

Uh oh....

"Acclaim's warnings and problems were "nothing new," said Michael Pachter, a video-game industry analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. He said the company has an obligation to warn investors of its situation, but that he thinks Acclaim will be OK"

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-b...,2083297.story

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Originally Posted by Master of 7's

Next up on the chopping block, THQ

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No, they made Full Spectrum Warrior and produce the only good wrestling game readily available on the American market. They'll be around for a long while. And, like all the "Acclaim going out of business" announcements, this is a cocktease.

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Originally Posted by SpoDaddy

To say Nintendo systems aren't profitable to third parties is laughable. Bad games sell more briskly on PS2 and Xbox for some reason (almost all Acclaim games). Acclaim's most recent good game (Burnout 2) sold over 200,000 copies on Cube, only 210,000 on Xbox with the Xbox version being clearly labeled as the updated, superior version. When companies make bad games, and those bad games don't sell on a particular system, by ceasing all development on that system you just piss people off because you're placing the failure on the console's userbase and not your own shitty product.

Just about everything Sega puts on Cube sells through the roof. Sonic Heroes came out for all three consoles, the Cube version smoked the other 2 in sales. Soul Calibur 2 on Cube outsold both the Xbox and PS2 versions! A Namco 3d fighting game on Cube sold more than on PS2 and you're saying third parties can't make money on Cube games??

The difference between the Cube market and the PS2/Xbox market is this: Nintendo consistently makes awesome games and markets them heavily. A third party game on Cube has to compete with great first party games that get big marketing budgets. Sony and Microsoft's landscapes are more wide open, it's not so cut and dry where most gamers will spend their dollars. This means a bad game has a better chance to sell on those systems, but it also means the Cube market is in the habit of buying heavily marketed games that wind up being great. If you make a great game and market it well, you're going to usually pull huge Cube numbers.

The bottom line is this: All these companies that stop Cube development are companies that make a living pumping out bad games. Acclaim? Midway? After Midway Arcade Treasures 2 comes out Midway can drop dead.

P.S. Midway made a FORTUNE selling horrible games on N64

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No they didnt. You act like something selling 200,000 on the Cube is above 210,000 on ANY SYSTEM. Lets get this straight: It's business. Nobody owes Nintendo jack shit for letting them release games for their system. Good or bad.

Also, your theory about Nintendo releasing their own games making it more competitive is ridiculous. Sony and MS have the same, if not more, quality games on their systems competing for a share of the marketplace. It's no different. But you bring up a good point, people buy a Nintendo console to play Nintendo games.

Why would you expect the sales to improve with that kind of attitude? That basically means if it's not by Nintendo out on the new Nintendo system, then it gets easily overlooked. What a terrible, terrible way to do business and shit all over the developers trying to put out good games.

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Originally Posted by RoleTroll

Uh oh....

"Acclaim's warnings and problems were "nothing new," said Michael Pachter, a video-game industry analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. He said the company has an obligation to warn investors of its situation, but that he thinks Acclaim will be OK"

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Damn...just when I was getting excited by the prospect of Acclaim's death...

I hope he's wrong.