Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 28

BUSINESS A28 Game over A look at the rise and fall of Glen Cove-based game maker Acclaim Entertainment: November: Acclaim's license to publish games related to World Wrestling Federation's trademarks expires License VI 23 1997 had been the source of some of Acclaim's best-selling titles 5 3 1 Acclaim restates its 1995 fiscal year results to reflect the deferment of $18 million in sales and $105 million in profit March 4: Acclaim releases the Nintendo 64 rame Turok: Dinosaur Hunter which sells more than 13 million copies Septl: Acclaim releases Turok: Evolution and says it will pay $10000 in U3 savings to the family of the first child born that day whose legal first name for at least one year is Turok The offer is part of an $8 million campaign for the game: which flops March 21: Acclaim's licensing agreement with WMS Industries allowing the game maker to publish the Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam series expires June 2: Acclaim merges with publicly traded Gamma Capital Corp and begins trading on Nasdaq 's about three weeks later No13: Acclaim releases BMX XXX a controversial "mature'-rated bike-riding stunt game that has footage of topless dancers At least seven major national retailers decline to stock the game which bombs Oct 1 Acclaim reports record annual sales of $585 million and a profit of $55 million April: Acclaim finalizes an agreement with city of Glen Cove to move into a 65000-square-foot three-story building in the city's downtown Oct Acclaim's stock reaches an all-time high of $3138 per share Sept 1: Acclaim releases the Super Nintendo game Mortal Kombat the blockbuster that goes on to sell more than 6 million copies over the following year une 8: Gregory Fischbach and James Scoroposki form Acclaim Entertainment in Oyster Bay Feb 5: Professional bicycle motocross racer Dave Mina sues Acclaim for using his name and likeness alongside BMX XXX Case is later settled May 5: Acclaim says it will restate earnings for its 2001 2002 and 2003 fiscal years as a result of a $95 million accounting error and other factors lead to pSeptl: Acclaim files IS -I for Chapter 7 0 bankruptcy NCWSOAY of Acclaim Luc Mallebranche 35 who worked in office services and the mail room at Acclaim for seven years said he often ran personal errands for Fischbach and Scoroposki usually on company time One time he was told to take a company van to Connecticut to move belongings from dorm room to Long Island home Mallebranche said But what really has former employees steamed is that after everything Fischbach and Scoroposki still hold secured claims of $25 million each meaning next in line to receive money after top creditor GMAC Commercial Finance gets paid its $23 million according to bankruptcy filings Their secured creditor status stems from a 2001 agreement in which the pair and others provided a total of $95 million to GMAC which then advanced the money to the company Meanwhile employees aren't hopeful that ever see the money owed them Because of the "web of involved Acclaim had operations in England and several other countries the trustee in the case said that it will be years before employees see the money they are owed if they ever da "People who were working hard are in a lot of trouble Guys in the quality assurance department with kids on the way now have or health insurance to cover the pregnancies said Kaplan the game tester "I knew they last much longer but I thought it would last longer than it did Acclaim was like a cockroach: Every time you think dead it would just keep Poor games GAMES from A8 Along with Robert Holmes who left the company in 1996 Fischbach and Scoroposki started Acclaim in 1987 in a loft in Oyster Bay after the three met while working at California-based game company Activision in the 1980s They took Acclaim public the next year when it had an annual profit of $47 million When Mortal Kombat became an arcade hit for Midway in the early 1990s Acclaim snapped up the rights to produce a version for the Super Nintendo console creating a smash hit that went on to sell more than 6 million copies In 1994 Acclaim bought comic-book publisher Voyager Communications IncH acquiring the rights to the character Turok and later turning it into a Nintendo 64 game that sold 15 million copies Easy coma easy go But while Acclaim had success designing games around established brands it also had a bad habit of losing those licenses In the 908 the company was unable to renew licenses for Mortal Kombat and World Wrestling Entertainment when the licensors elected to sign deals with others Acclaim once had the rights to make games based on movies and TV shows starring Marvel comic-book characters just a few years before the and "X-Men" films became blockbusters But more recent news typified Acclaim's relationships: Since 2002 the WWE professional bicycle motocross racer Dave Mirra and the company owned by the downfall Scoroposki could at times be difficult to work for especially toward the end Setting tee high a bar In interviews former Acclaim employees painted the picture of a company unable to meet what they said were the unrealistic goals expected by Fischbach and Scoroposki For example since January 2000 Acclaim had five different heads of sales a revolving door that resulted from its inability to meet the lofty expectations Fischbach and Scoroposki demanded employees said Then as the reputation for producing poor games grew it became harder to attract top sides talent they said Richard Stegner president of Exhibit Control a Sarasota Fla firm that designs exhibits for trade shows said he met Scoroposki when Acclaim was formed 17 years ago Stegner said he designed nearly all of booths for industry trade shows during the existence often making between $L5 million and $L8 million a year from the game maker But Acclaim rarely paid him in a timely manner and at the time of the bankruptcy the company owed him nearly $161000 according to court filings considered him Scoroposki a friend for several years" Stegner said Stegner said Fischbach and Scoroposki "cared for no one but themselves" a sentiment shared by Acclaim employees As an example during Labor Day weekend just more than a week after shutting down Acclaim and laying off hundreds of workers sources said Fischbach threw a large party at his Bridgehampton home unsuccessfully to find a new primary lender and it was facing a class-action shareholder lawsuit In interviews former Acclaim employees said co-founders Fischbach and Scoroposki eventually stopped listening to the advice of those around them contributing to inability to produce the hits Another game tester James Seetal described times when Fischbach would visit the quality assurance department housed in the basement of Glen Cove headquarters Seetal said Fischbach sometimes would come up from behind a tester and ask if the game he was playing was any good When this happened to Seetal he would reply honestly saying: not great" or mediocre" Seetal said That would put Fischbach in a "grump mood" or he would walk away before Seetal was done talking Seetal said "A lot of the head guys I think they even knew that much about video games" said Seetal 24 who worked at Acclaim for five years In truth Fischbach and Scoroposki had spent decades in the video game business but even with all that experience Acdaim couldn't salvage a reputation that had become so bad that others had begun to derisively call the company "Ackl Lamer As those associated with the company point out any discussion of Acclaim invariably comes back to Fischbach 62 and Scoroposki 56 the pair at the helm during the video game 17-year existence Although most of the Acclaim employees interviewed for this story said they enjoyed their time at the company the consensus was that Fischbach and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen each have sued Acclaim regarding licensing disputes This summer the company also lost Major League Baseball Players Association licensing essentially killing its All-Star Baseball franchise Rivals began to learn from Acclaim's licensing successes and its development failures creating a fierce marketplace in which it was unable to compete said GameSpotcom editor Kasavin Unlike the film industry in which few people know what studio is behind what movie game publishers and studios tend to be closely associated with the titles they produce Similarly because of Acclaim's misses consumers began avoiding its games Kasavin said he thinks the licensing and marketing angles became more important than quality In fact one of biggest recent releases was 2002's Turok: Evolution which was backed with an $8-million marketing campaign The game went on to receive lukewarm reviews and generate disappointing sales "I think demise serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of caring about repeat customers" wrote Kasavin in an e-mail interview "Acclaim was so busy raking it in in the short run that it overlooked the long run" Meanwhile internally Acclaim was mired with so many financial and legal problems that just getting a game out the door was a feat in itself The company had $473 million in assets and $1453 million in debt according to its most recent annual report it restated three years of fiscal earnings in May for months before the bankruptcy it had tried NEWSDAV MONDAY OCTOBER 25 2004.