i saw this yesterday, and should have given you guys a heads up. AKLM shares have recently taken a tumble after poor financial results, but they're on the way up big-time! the following may have helped boost the price - be careful though, it's likely to take a fall by the end of the day...

midnightz

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Motley Fool
Acclaim's Wild Card
Monday March 8, 1:46 pm ET
By Jeff Hwang

Activision (Nasdaq: ATVI - News) had Tony Hawk. Take-Two (Nasdaq: TTWO - News) had Grand Theft Auto. Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS - News) had Madden and the rest of its sports franchise. Now, struggling Acclaim (Nasdaq: AKLM - News) may finally have a monster of its own up its sleeve.

Early this year, Acclaim lost the publishing rights to the third game in the critically acclaimed (no pun intended), but undersold, Burnout series after developer Criterion bolted for Electronic Arts. But in its upcoming street-racing simulator Juiced, Acclaim already has a potential blockbuster replacement on both the Sony (NYSE: SNE - News) PlayStation 2 and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) Xbox platforms.

Though still early in development, Juiced hopes to cash in on the same The Fast and the Furious-inspired popularity of import car tuning and street racing that made EA's Need For Speed: Underground the bestseller this past holiday season. Unlike Burnout, Juiced will feature real licensed cars, including tuner's dreams like the Mazda RX-7, the Toyota (NYSE: TM - News) Supra, and the Nissan (Nasdaq: NSANY - News) Skyline. And like NFS, the game allows players to modify their cars' appearance and upgrade performance through the purchase of aftermarket parts.

But how will Juiced really differentiate itself? That's the $50 question. For one, it will employ realistic car physics to provide a more lifelike experience compared to the arcade-style racing in NFS. And where NFS sort of skimmed on the aftermarket part-selection process, Juiced looks to allow tuning freaks to pick their parts in greater detail from big names such as HKS, Apex, VeilSide, and Greddy. Also unlike NFS, the Xbox version of Juiced will be online-capable.

Juiced also will allow for physical car damage. That, along with its availability on the Xbox, will set the game apart from Sony's car-lover's dream Gran Turismo. Finally, the game will feature several new tracks, and a new, unique racing mode on top of the basic racing types.

Acclaim isn't known for consistent quality, but early indications are that Juiced could be a major contender. And again, the game is still early in development, and so not all the details are out. We don't even know when it will be released, but we'll keep you posted. If done right, Juiced could be Acclaim's big ticket to success.

nice move up.

midnightz

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Interplay sues BattleBorne over 'Airborne' deal Tuesday March 9, 12:40 pm ET

LOS ANGELES, March 9 (Reuters) - Video game publisher Interplay Entertainment Corp. (OTC BB:IPLY.OB - News) has sued privately held game developer BattleBorne Entertainment Inc. over a deal that Interplay said was improperly terminated.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, claims that BattleBorne terminated without cause an agreement between the two to produce the game "Airborne," then refused to return a $250,000 advance from Interplay.

BattleBorne declined to comment on the suit.

According to the filing, Interplay and BattleBorne struck a deal for "Airborne" on June 5, 2003, and on June 13 Interplay paid the developer a $250,00 advance.

Interplay claimed BattleBorne sent it a letter on Sept. 29 terminating the deal and asserting ownership of "Airborne." In late December, BattleBorne announced a publishing deal with Acclaim Entertainment Inc. (NasdaqSC:AKLM - News) for the game.