Acclaim Games

Updated on Nov 05, 2023

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Former type Subsidiary of Playdom Website Acclaim Games Motto Live it Online! Ceased operations August 27, 2010		Defunct August 27, 2010 Founded 2006 Successor Playdom
Industry Computer and video game industry Key people Howard Marks, Neil Malhotra, David Perry, David Historian DeWald, Steven-Elliot Altman and Michael 'Doran' Zummo Products 9Dragons, 2Moons, DANCE!, Ponystars, My Diva Doll, Tribal Nations, Prize Potato, The Chronicles of Spellborn Headquarters Beverly Hills, California, United States Founders Howard Marks, Neil Malhotra

Acclaim Games was a private online video game company that offered free massively multiplayer online role-playing games on its website upon registration. The company was founded in 2006 and was the successor to Acclaim Entertainment in terms of brand name. After Acclaim Entertainment filed for bankruptcy, former Activision CEO Howard Marks purchased the "Acclaim" name in September 2004 for a reported $100,000. He, along with Neil Malhotra, created a new company, naming it "Acclaim Games" and taking a totally different direction from the previous company.

While Acclaim Games primarily focused on bringing to North America and Europe online games originally from Asia, it also gave the opportunity to its registered members to submit video games they created. Acclaim Games relied on In-game advertising and items sales for revenues, while releasing the games themselves for free.

The company released fourteen games: The Chronicles of Spellborn, Kogamu, BOTS!! (which was its launching title), 9Dragons, 2Moons, Ponystars, Dance Online, My Diva Doll, Tribal Nations and Prize Potato. As of December 2007, the company had 15 million registered accounts and 500,000 active players across all games.

On May 19, 2010 Playdom acquired the company. Three months later, on August 27, and almost six years to the day that Acclaim Entertainment went out of business, Playdom closed Acclaim Games. The 9Dragons game was sold to GamersFirst.

Games

BOTS!! - A multi-player online fighting game in which players choose from one of three basic BOTS (Patch, Surge, and Ram) and then upgrade their character throughout the game. There are multi-player story modes that include Sector (Player vs Virus), PVP (Player/Team vs Player/Team) and Base (Base vs Base). This game has been out since April 2006. Before the game's original release, a 2D promo of the game was available for a short amount of time.

Kogamu - Kogamu is effectively a lightweight MMORPG, modeled after the Korean "Dungeon and Fighter" title. This was the second title Project Top Secret winner Mike (Doran) Zummo sprearheaded. All the action of the game takes place on side-scrolling screens occupied by randomly moving enemies that need to be beaten, shot, burned or otherwise killed off.

RockFree - A Guitar Hero-like, free-to-play, flash based game. This game was the first title Project Top Secret winner Mike (Doran) Zummo worked on. Originally starting on the Web, RockFree allowed up to 8 players to face off playing the guitar tracks to popular songs. Leveraging licences from Aerosmith, Heart, and many others, the game attracted great attention. In a partnership with Slide, the game was ported to Facebook, where it peaked at 1.5 monthly average users before being discontinued.

9Dragons - A 3D MMORPG set in China during the Ming Dynasty. It includes actual Chinese geography and historical features such as the Great Wall of China and the Shaolin Temple. 9Dragons was developed by Korean company Indy21 and the lore and in-game storyline was remastered and re-directed in the United States by best-selling author Steven-Elliot Altman.

2Moons - A translation of the Korean MMORPG Dekaron by Gamehi, featuring a new story line. Published by Acclaim under the direction of David Perry, 2Moons uses an in-game advertising business model. In December 2007 the game had 500,000 active players, with fewer than 10% buying items through this advertising.

Dance! Online - A game is based on the Chinese game Super Dancer Online created by Nineyou. Like 2Moons, it is published by Acclaim under the direction of David Perry. As of December 2007, the game had 300,000 active players, of which over 50% are female. Ever since 2008 it has been dumped by Acclaim and has not been updated nor cared for.

Ponystars - an online virtual pets game, launched in June 2008. It is a US-hosted version of the French game Pony Valley and is operated in partnership with that game's creator, Feerik.

My Diva Doll - A multi-player online fashion and decorating game. Partnership with French company Feerik.

Tribal Nations - A multi-player online sim set in the Native Tribes of Mesoamerica. Partnership with French company Celsius Online. The game was based on Celsius Online's then-popular webgame Renaissance Kingdoms. After Acclaim ended the partnership, Celsius continued the game, renaming it Native Kingdoms.

Prize Potato - This flash game was Acclaim's first foray into social games on Facebook. The final incarnation had people create characters that people in their social network voted on. The owner of the character with the most votes won major prizes like concert tickets, trips, video cameras, and more selected at the outset of the race.

The Chronicles of Spellborn - MMORPG developed by Spellborn International, released on the 27th of November, 2008 in the Europe. Release for the USA and the UK is planned for Q1 of 2009.

Knight's Blood- A multi-player online Knight fighting game. In partnership with RedMoonStudios GmbH & Co. KG.

Muniz Online

TrackMania

Prize Island

Top Secret - A Scalable Multi-player Online Racing Game directed by David Perry and developed by Acclaim Games. It is an online collaboration in video game development, drawing on both established professionals and novices. The project also features a competition, where the top contributor will take the role as director for a new game.

References

Acclaim Games Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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