Fund4Games Acquires Acclaim Europe Assets

Representatives from British project management and funding group Fund4Games have announced that the organization has acquired the game-related assets of Acclaim Europe, which shut down alongside the rest of Acclaim last last year. Two titles which were in production at Acclaim's Manchester Studio are now being completed, and Fund4Games is actively seeking publishing partners for action title Interview With A Made Man and racing game ATV3. Development is being carried out in Manchester by a team who previously worked on the titles with Acclaim, with both titles due to be displayed behind closed doors at E3 this May. Another two Acclaim games titles also acquired by Fund4Games are still being evaluated by the company. Fund4Games finances individual projects, rather than investing in companies outright, giving it greater freedom to work with new development studios or smaller publishers. The organization has worked on a number of titles related to Acclaim in the past two years, including street racing game Juiced (due for release in May), World Championship Rugby (which reached number 2 in the French and UK charts) and Urban Freestyle Soccer. Tim Gatland, the Chief Executive of Fund4Games, said, "Acquiring the assets of Acclaim's European operation is a significant step for Fund4Games, but one we believe fits very well with the company's ongoing strategy. Interview With A Made Man and ATV 3 are now being completed by a superb team and we're now contacting publishers who may be interested in the titles. We're very pleased with the progress made to date and we're looking forward to a successful development and release of the titles." Acclaim’s comic assets were also sold this week in the U.S., with ex-Marvel and Tekno Comics employee John Taddeo apparently being the sole bidder. During its heyday, Acclaim acquired Valiant Comics and produced video games based on them, including Shadowman, Armorines and X-O Manowar. Taddeo's acquisition only covers the intellectual property and comic book end of these products, however, with major Acclaim property Turok not covered, since it was licensed via firm Classic Media and not owned by Acclaim in terms of intellectual property. This now accounts for the majority of in-progress game projects at Acclaim, with the positively previewed The Red Star and 100 Bullets console games being some of the few major titles yet to be officially signed up for completion, likely complicated by the fact that they are licensed titles.