Acclaim Interview

For anyone who had been following the gaming industry for any length of time, the downfall and eventual demise of Acclaim was not much of a surprise. The company that brought us such memorable gaming experiences as Burnout, Turok, and Extreme G had begun down a slippery slope of forgettable, and oftentimes downright poor releases long before their experiment with topless biking. Of course, people look back on the low point as being 2002's Z-Axis-developed BMXXX, but their path to self-destruction was not paved with just one game, and their eventual absence was met with sighs of relief from many, while several companies with whom Acclaim had been working with for future releases were left holding the proverbial bag.

But that, as they say, is water under the bridge. In December 2005, former Activision front man Howard Marks made a play for the now-defunct company, and purchased the name "Acclaim Games" for the meager sum of $100,000. Now this "new-Acclaim" has been given new life, and has risen from the dead, so to speak. Interested to see just where this new company was heading with this established brand, we spoke with company brand manager Ken Chan to find out just what is going on.

First of all thank you for taking the time to speak with us today regarding your company. But first, what's your story? What has been and is your role in what some would call the resurrection of Acclaim?

It's my pleasure to speak with you, thanks for giving me this opportunity. Ok, my story, well my name is Ken Chan and I'm the brand manager on BOTS. However, I would say that my job is not like a traditional brand manager. In other companies, brand managers very rarely have the ability to adapt the product. For BOTS, I plan to bring the game to the players and then let the players tell me what they want from the game. I'm bringing this up because this represents our new philosophy for Acclaim Games as well.

So give us a clear picture of Acclaim as it stands today. You are not the old-Acclaim, I assume, so how is this new-Acclaim different?

We're about bringing fun and free multiplayer games online and being really flexible and adaptive to our consumers. Since BOTS is the first release, it's also the first opportunity for gamers to experience this new philosophy and that's a big part of my job.

But why saddle yourself with a name with so much baggage? Acclaim, especially the Acclaim just prior to the company filing for bankruptcy in September 2004, was not enjoying the favor of much of the gaming community.

I wouldn't consider it saddling at all. I'm not going to lie, there are benefits and drawbacks to being Acclaim. Brands are powerful, no doubt about it. They can elicit extreme loyalty or disgust. I think when a good brand goes bad, all the negative consumer sentiment comes from the fact that it was once good. If a brand was never great, no one would care and no one would be angry. We believe in the good Acclaim brand and although we recognize that the end of its last run wasn't great, we really think the brand deserves a second chance and the best is yet to come.

I understand that you are not taking this new Acclaim in the same direction as the company that gave us BMXXX, but the name association is still there, especially within the general consumer market that does not follow the gaming news on a daily basis and thus does not know the difference between old-Acclaim and new-Acclaim. How do you plan on separating the companies in the minds of consumers?

I'm not sure it's necessary to separate the companies per se. Again, we really think Acclaim is a great brand that should not be entirely measured, and in many consumers' minds it's not, with the bad decisions at the end. We do want to let consumers know, however, that the new Acclaim has a different strategic and product focus so I suppose that's a separation in a sense.

Would not a brand new name not have made this task easier for everyone?

I'm not sure it would have. We're about making fun, easy to enjoy games. I think games used to be all about the fun and then it took a bad commercial turn towards the Hollywood model; lots of money, risk-adverse, and consumer as an afterthought. I think the Acclaim brand represents a time when the purpose of games was fun and it was much more accessible to consumers. That makes for a good fit, for the consumers, the company and the adopted branded.

The thing about taking on a name like Acclaim is that you need to succeed right off the bat, since right now all eyes are on the company just waiting for it to screw up, and thus exemplify all of the negative connotations of the company's previous life. Do you agree?

Even without the eyes of everyone, who doesn't plan to succeed right off the bat? *smile* I agree, there is definitely added pressure there. But again, we're different. This game doesn't have to make a big splash on release to be called a success. Quite frankly, I don't have to fight for a sku at Electronics Boutique. Unlike a lot of other brand managers, I can take my time, listen to the consumer and adjust. I don't worry about not making a big splash right away, I worry about not being able to have that conversation with our consumer.

Turning our thoughts away from cloudy skies, let's talk a bit about Acclaim's current projects. What can we expect in 2006 from Acclaim?

We have an exciting year lined up. As you know, we are signing up closed beta testers for BOTS right now. The open beta and our launch will follow shortly after. I guarantee that BOTS will shake things up, can't tell you specifics but by the time the game launches, I think you'll agree. The next game lined up is 9Dragons, an Asian themed MMORPG. I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty fatigued by the same hack/cast/heal/grind formula as an elf of other MMORPGs. Then a few months after 9Dragons, we're launching another game, but that's another secret for now.

Will you be showing off these titles at E3 in May? I know I'd love to stop by your booth.

We haven't finalized plans yet. I love E3. However, I would say that E3, by nature, does not align with our philosophy. It's about making a big splashes and yet not a single consumer gets to participate.

On your website, you say that Acclaim's games are free, for the most part, thanks in part to advertising in-game. Can you give an example of in-game advertising in one of your games, and how it is non-invasive to the gaming experience?

Our advertising will be in-game as well as in community areas. I don't think it will take away from the gaming experience at all. Think about all the entertainment mediums that benefit from advertising, TV, print, radio and online. Like us, these are BOTS all free to consumers and provide a lot of entertainment value. We are different than a game you paid for. Ads in those games can be very intrusive. Imagine watching a movie in the theater and it suddenly stops for an ad. People feel that's invasive because they paid for the movie but understand it when they watch the same movie on TV.

Truly, this is a precarious time to bring a MMORPG to the market, as games of this sort demand a monthly fee, and gamers in general are not willing to spread their subscription fees between more than a couple games a month. With Acclaim's upcoming MMORPG, are you trying to pull players away from the established powerhouses such as World of Warcraft or EverQuest II, or are you aiming for a different market altogether?

With BOTS, we definitely are not competing with MMORPGs. It's more of a multiplayer online action game (MOAG?). Even with 9Dragons, I wouldn't say we're competing directly because our game uses a different formula.


How do you plan on appealing to these players? Why should they play your game over one of the other more recognized brands out there?

The number one reason is that the games are fun. And quite frankly, they better be fun because there is absolutely no risk to the consumer to play our games. If I was a traditional brand manager, as long as I convinced enough players it was fun and enough bought the game, I made money; regardless of if they really had fun after bringing the game home. We don't have that luxury. We are focused on making this a fun experience and if it's not, the consumers will tell us and we'll adjust accordingly.

The website mentions a possibility of extending your games to the console market, including the next-generation of platforms. Any news on this front? Is there a specific game that you are seeing as a particularly good fit for next-generation consoles?

No news yet but we do have plans for the console market.

Thank you again for your time. I know there were some tough questions asked, but few companies in recent memory have spurred such a love/hate relationship as Acclaim. We do wish you the very best, and look forward to seeing what Acclaim has in store for us in the coming months. Is there anything you would like to add?

Thanks a lot. I enjoyed fielding some honest questions. The last thing I'd like to say is that I invite your readers to try BOTS, even if it's not their typical genre. That's really the only way they're going to be able to understand where we're headed and what the new Acclaim is all about. See you in the game!

For more on BOTS, check out the website

Mar 3, 2006 - 3:10 pm | 0 comments
Jason Dobson