Acclaim's Death Rattle: Games up for Auction

[MaiXu]

According to GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6140853.html), it looks as if what little remains of Acclaim Entertainment will be up for auction in Oceanside, New York some time soon. Of note are a few titles gamers may recognize:

A few current high bids include $5,000 for Crazy Taxi, $40,000 for the Re-Volt series, $25,000 for Mr. Domino, and $75,000 for XGRA: Extreme G Racing, Extreme G, and Extreme G2.
The rest of the article can be found here. (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6140853.html)

What I don't get: Will the "winner" of each game's auction have the rights to the game, the franchise/license, or what? I personally would love to see someone pick up, complete, and release The Red Star (http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/redstar/index.html?q=red%20star). I played it all the way back on OXM disc 35, in September 2004. I had a lot of fun with it, but sadly, it disappeared as soon as Acclaim went under.

[Syl]

I thought acclaim already sold off the majority of their major franchises? (Turok etc.)

It's nice to see so much interest in extreme-G, that was a series that I actually enjoyed and i felt that with a little bit of cleaning up, could become an awesome game.

[Morrolan]

Seriously, $5000 for Crazy Taxi? That's for the license, right? Holy cow-bangles! 5K and I could make the next Crazy Taxi game. And by 'make' I mean 'fail at making.'

[KamaItachi]

Mr. Domino goes for more than Crazy Taxi? I'm not sure if that makes me happy or sad....

[Magnanimous Gnome]

I doubt that's for the game licenses. Doesn't Sega own the rights to Crazy Taxi?? They developed and published nearly all (if not all) the Crazy Taxi games after all.

[nonchalance]

So what do you get for your money?
And is there a minimum bid for anything?

I wouldn't mind owning the rights to the original Mortal Kombat. That'd make one hell of a Christmas present.

[MonteCristo]

It's for the Publishing rights

Here's the full list http://maltzauctions.com/acclaimip.htm

[nonchalance]

So you don't get source code, etc?

And is it international publishing rights, or just American?

[Nameback]

I also wonder what this entails, those prices do seem really low, almost low enough for anyone to jump in..............

[grammatoncleric]

What about Turok? Sure the last one sucked but the N64 versions were a blast. That's one franchise which still holds some nostalgia in my heart. I'd love to see a good next gen version of it.

[Morrolan]

Turok: Rage Wars was amazing in multiplayer. Every other Turok game sucked. :)

[MajSheppard]

I am going to buy the rights to crazy taxi, and then own a taxi. I shall call it Crazy Taxi, and I shall charge people insane amounts of money to break every traffic law in getting them from point a to b. Brillant.

[TrackZero]

Heh, sounds like they're selling off their entire Dreamcast game lineup. ;)

[Deadend]

I am going to buy the rights to crazy taxi, and then own a taxi. I shall call it Crazy Taxi, and I shall charge people insane amounts of money to break every traffic law in getting them from point a to b. Brillant.

Just get yourself some diplomatic plates and your good to go craaazy taxi!

[Last of the Red Hot Mamas]

From the Quarter to Three forums (http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=533131&highlight=#533131):

The auctioneer has received "400 file boxes from California" representing all the data and information on these games from Akklaim's perspective. They do not have any knowledge of what is in each individual box representing a game, regarding rights, royalties, ip, code, legal docs, etc.

The autioneer "does not have the manpower" to research and catalog what exactly they have. Instead, they are allowing buyers to come and see the boxes themselves, and after they do their own due diligence, they can make a bid on an item, set of items, or the whole shabang.

Wow, what a bargain...

[jeffool]

I played Red Star at SDCC2004 and it was a fun enough beat'em-up. Though I'd be more interested to see how 100 Bullets would've been.

Oh, Mortal Kombat II? Damn what a game.

[Gamewatcher]

Playing Re-Volt in the Xbox Live beta was one of the best online gaming experiences I've had. I know, it sounds crazy - but that game was just damn fun to play.

I wish someone would bring it back. Looks like I could almost afford to myself. Well, maybe with a second mortgage.

[TDiddy]

You get the rights to publish these games. Not make sequels or anything like that, unless it is an Acclaim created series, like Extreme G. For example, Acclaim had the publishing rights for the original Crazy Taxi. That gave them the rights, for all intents and purposes, to port the game to whatever system them wanted.
Things get difficult for licensed products, though. Anyone buying Quarterback Club would just be sitting on it, as Electronic Arts has the NFL rights, so they couldn't bring that game out even if they wanted to. And even if they could, they would have the same problem NBA Jam would bring along. You would have to get the League license, and then get the rights from each and every retired person on the roster of those games.

[Spigot]

If it IS licenses, all of those IPs would be sweet to have.

That said, $5000 for Crazy Taxi is by far the best deal there.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

For the person craving more Turok-

Someone (I forget who) has the rights to Turok and is developing a game for the next-next-gen systems.