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Accolade, Inc. (later Infogrames North America, Inc.) was an American
video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...
and
publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
based in
San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...
. The company was founded as Accolade in 1984 by Alan Miller and
Bob Whitehead Robert A. Whitehead (born November 1, 1953) is an American video game designer and programmer. While working for Atari, Inc. he wrote two of the nine Atari Video Computer System launch titles: ''Blackjack'' and '' Star Ship''. After leaving Atari ...
, who had previously co-founded
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
in 1979. The company became known for numerous sports game series, including ''
HardBall! ''HardBall!'' is a baseball video game published by Accolade. Initially released for the Commodore 64 in 1985, it was ported to other computers over the next several years. A Sega Genesis cartridge was published in 1991. ''HardBall!'' was followe ...
,
Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (; born January 21, 1940), nicknamed "the Golden Bear", is an American retired professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greate ...
'' and ''
Test Drive A test drive is the driving of a motor vehicle to assess its drivability or roadworthiness, and general operating state. A person who tests vehicles for a living, either for an automobile company, automotive media for review purposes, or a motor ...
''. By the early 1990s, Accolade saw critical acclaim for ''
Star Control ''Star Control: Famous Battles of the Ur-Quan Conflict, Volume IV'' is an action-strategy video game developed by Toys for Bob and published by Accolade. It was originally released for MS-DOS and Amiga in 1990, followed by ports for the Sega Gene ...
'' (1990), as well as strong sales for ''
Bubsy ''Bubsy'' is a series of platforming video games created by Michael Berlyn and developed and published by Accolade. The games star an anthropomorphic bobcat named Bubsy, a character that takes inspiration from ''Super Mario Bros.'' and ''Son ...
'' (1993). However,
Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
sued Accolade for creating unauthorized
Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...
games by
reverse-engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...
the console's boot-protection. Accolade won the case on appeal, overturning an injunction from the lower court that had interrupted their sales and development. The founders soon left the company. The new chief executive, Peter Harris, attracted new investment from
Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...
. The following year, Accolade president Jim Barrett replaced him. He focused on existing franchises hoping to secure the company's future. However, technical issues undermined the release of ''
Bubsy 3D ''Bubsy 3D'' (also known as ''Bubsy 3D: Furbitten Planet'' or ''Bubsy Is 3D in "Furbitten Planet"'') is a 1996 platform video game developed by Eidetic and published by Accolade for the PlayStation. It is the first and only 3D game in the '' ...
'' (1996), and ''
Jack Nicklaus 5 ''Jack Nicklaus 5'' is a golf video game developed by American studio Eclipse Entertainment and published by Accolade for Windows 95. It is part of a series of golfing games named after golfer Jack Nicklaus. It was released in November 1997, shor ...
'' (1997) was considered a commercial disappointment, despite positive reviews. The company still had modest successes with games such as ''
Star Control 3 ''Star Control 3'' is a 1996 action-adventure game developed by Legend Entertainment and Video game publisher, published by Accolade, Inc., Accolade. The third installment in the ''Star Control'' trilogy, the game was released for MS-DOS in 19 ...
'' (1996) and ''Deadlock'' (1996), and saw strong sales for both ''
Test Drive 4 ''Test Drive 4'' is a racing game developed by Pitbull Syndicate and published by Accolade for PlayStation and Microsoft Windows in 1997. It offers 14 supercars and muscle cars, and tasks the player with beating computer opponents in tracks set ...
'' (1997) and '' Test Drive: Off Road'' (1997). The French firm
Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA ()), also known as Atari Group, is a French holding company headquartered in Paris that owns mainly video gaming-related interactive entertainment properties. Atari SA's core subsidiaries include ...
purchased Accolade in 1999 as part of its strategy to become more global, transforming it into a subsidiary called Infogrames North America. By 2000, it was consolidated into Infogrames, Inc. (the former GT Interactive), marking the end of Infogrames North America as a separate company and what remained of Accolade as an entity. In the years that followed, Infogrames purchased the
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...
trademark and rebranded as
Atari SA Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA ()), also known as Atari Group, is a French holding company headquartered in Paris that owns mainly video gaming-related interactive entertainment properties. Atari SA's core subsidiaries include t ...
, before declaring bankruptcy in 2013 resulting in the sell-off of some assets. The Accolade assets were purchased by game publisher
Tommo Tommo Inc. is an American video game publisher based in City of Industry, California. Founded in 1990, Tommo started out as a small independent distributor of imported video games. Since 2006, Tommo also operates a publishing subsidiary, UFO In ...
, who later resold them to
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
–based
holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...
Billionsoft as part of a strategy to revive several classic games, however the assets that Billionsoft held were re-acquired by Atari SA in April 2023.


History


Origins (1984–1985)

Alan Miller and
Bob Whitehead Robert A. Whitehead (born November 1, 1953) is an American video game designer and programmer. While working for Atari, Inc. he wrote two of the nine Atari Video Computer System launch titles: ''Blackjack'' and '' Star Ship''. After leaving Atari ...
founded Accolade in 1984; both had worked previously at
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...
. They believed Atari undervalued its programmers, leading them to leave the company and start
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
in October 1979. Activision became the first developer to operate independently of the
console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
companies and one of the few firms to survive the
video game crash of 1983 The video game crash of 1983 (known in Japan as the Atari shock) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985 in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including market saturatio ...
, though they still posted a US$18 million loss the following year. After a large devaluation of their stock, Miller and Whitehead left Activision to form Accolade. Accolade was founded and operated in
San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...
. Whitehead and Miller focused their game development on
home computers Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...
such as the Commodore 64, exploring a market for which Activision had not yet created games. This allowed Accolade to take advantage of the new technology of
floppy disks A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...
, which were less expensive to manufacture than cartridges and did not require licensing fees to be paid to the console companies. Whitehead and Miller were unable to attract investment so soon after the game market had crashed, leading them to self-fund their new venture. The pair hired
chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
Tom Frisina to handle managerial duties, and they each began to work on their own launch titles. They also hired Mimi Doggett, a veteran visual artist from Atari, to compete with other developers on graphical detail.Their goal for their first titles was to think beyond the gaming medium and draw inspiration from other forms of popular entertainment, including television and film. Miller's first project was '' Law of the West'' (1985), a ''
High Noon ''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western (genre), Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in Real time (media), real time, centers ...
–''inspired
western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
that mixed gunfights with
adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
elements, pioneering a choice of dialogue options that later became common in games. At the same time, Whitehead had seen success previously with the sports games ''Home Run'' and ''Football'' (1979) on the
Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...
, which led to the baseball game ''
HardBall! ''HardBall!'' is a baseball video game published by Accolade. Initially released for the Commodore 64 in 1985, it was ported to other computers over the next several years. A Sega Genesis cartridge was published in 1991. ''HardBall!'' was followe ...
'' (1985) as his Accolade debut. The game was the first to emulate the "behind the pitcher" viewpoint seen on television, and introduced new features such as player data and coach mode. It became one of Accolade's bestselling games on the Commodore 64 and was considered one of the biggest commercial successes of its time.


Success in sports and publishing (1985–1990)

Accolade aimed to balance its roles as a developer and publisher. Miller recalled, "we tried to have about half of the original titles done by employee developers and half by external development groups". Several outside groups would
port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...
the games to other hardware so that Accolade could focus their staff on creating original titles. One of their first third-party games was '' SunDog: Frozen Legacy'' (1985) by FTL Games. Accolade recruited Mike Lorenzen from Activision to create the
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
game ''Psi 5 Trading Company'' (1985), drawing inspiration from ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...
''. Other early successes included the
boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
game ''Fight Night'' (1985), developed by Canadian developer
Artech Digital Entertainment Artech Digital Entertainment, Ltd. (stylized as ARTECH studios) was a video game developer formed in 1982 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Also known as Artech Studios, the company developed games such as '' Raze's Hell'', ''Monopoly'', ''Jeopardy!'' ...
. Artech also created the
combat flight simulation game Combat flight simulators are vehicle simulation games, amateur flight simulation computer programs used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for professional pilot and mil ...
''The Dam Busters'' (1984), inspired by the eponymous classic war film. This led them to create another combat flight simulator called ''Ace of Aces'' (1986) with a development cost of US$80,000, which sold 500,000 units and became one of Accolade's most successful games. Accolade partnered with other publishing companies such as U.S. Gold to distribute their games in Europe, before later switching to
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
(EA). Between 1985 and 1986, Accolade's revenues grew from US$1.5 million to US$5 million, thanks to titles like ''Ace of Aces'', a golf game called '' Mean 18'' (1986), and a driving game called ''
Test Drive A test drive is the driving of a motor vehicle to assess its drivability or roadworthiness, and general operating state. A person who tests vehicles for a living, either for an automobile company, automotive media for review purposes, or a motor ...
'' (1987).
Distinctive Software Distinctive Software, Inc. was a Canadian video game developer established in Burnaby, British Columbia, by Don Mattrick and Jeff Sember after their success with the game ''Evolution''. Mattrick (age 17) and Jeff Sember approached Sydney Devel ...
, another Canadian developer who had previously ported Accolade's games to other computer systems, created ''Test Drive''. The game pioneered the concept of driving exotic cars at the risk of being chased by the police and led to a series that would become one of Accolade's most successful. In 1987, Frisina left as CEO to found his own game company,
Three-Sixty Pacific Three-Sixty Pacific was an American video game publisher and developer. Founded in the late 1980s by avid wargamers and military history enthusiasts, they were acquired by IntraCorp Entertainment Inc. in 1994. Games They have developed the mo ...
. Miller briefly took over as CEO until Allan Epstein was hired to lead the company in May 1988. Accolade continued to enjoy a strong reputation as a publisher and developer of sports games. Their baseball game ''Hardball!'' became one of their most popular series, with later entries created by outside developers such as Chris Taylor. This allowed Whitehead time to develop original titles like the
American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
game '' 4th & Inches'' (1987), while the company published Steve Cartwright's
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
game ''Fast Break'' (1989), and Artech's tennis game, ''Serve & Volley'' (1988). Many of these sports titles became commercially and critically successful, with Accolade's biggest successes coming from
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
. Their first golf game ''Mean 18'', developed by Rex Bradford, became the ''Jack Nicklaus'' series. These games pioneered the "three-click" system seen in most golf games, where the player times their button presses to control their backswing, downswing and follow-through. Accolade outsold other golf game publishers thanks to the
Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (; born January 21, 1940), nicknamed "the Golden Bear", is an American retired professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greate ...
license. By 1990, Accolade released '' Test Drive III: The Passion'' (1990), developing the game in-house as the first game in the series with three-dimensional (3D) polygon graphics. At the turn of the decade, Accolade tried to diversify outside sports games and into other game genres. Hoping to compete with leading adventure game publishers
LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor, former video game developer and video game publisher, publisher, and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George ...
and Sierra, Accolade created their own adventure
game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...
.
Infocom Infocom, Inc., was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerston ...
alumni Mike Berlyn created the adventure game '' Altered Destiny'' (1990), while Cartwright, an Activision veteran, created the ''Les Manley'' series. Accolade also published the ''
Star Control ''Star Control: Famous Battles of the Ur-Quan Conflict, Volume IV'' is an action-strategy video game developed by Toys for Bob and published by Accolade. It was originally released for MS-DOS and Amiga in 1990, followed by ports for the Sega Gene ...
'' series of games, created by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. Released in 1990 and 1992 respectively, both games received awards, and journalists repeatedly ranked them among the best games of all time. Still, Accolade remained focused on their successful sports games, and accidentally placed a sticker on the box of ''Star Control'' ''II'' calling it the "Best Sports Game" of 1992.


Console and legal challenges (1990–1993)

By the early 1990s, Accolade observed the rise of a new generation of gaming consoles, and sought to shift towards a market they had previously abandoned. In 1990, Accolade CEO Allan Epstein expressed his opinion that the growing console market was both an opportunity and a challenge, since both the technology and audience differed from that of the computer. The company released several games for the
Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...
by
reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...
the console's boot-protection. Sega sued Accolade for doing this without their authorization, winning an initial injunction that forced Accolade to stop selling any games for the Genesis. Accolade, however, won on appeal, setting a precedent that became cited in numerous cases about reverse engineering. Accolade later reached an out-of-court settlement with Sega that allowed Accolade to continue building their own Genesis cartridges as an official licensee. One condition of the settlement was that Accolade would develop several games exclusive to Sega consoles, as a way for Sega to maintain an advantage over their rivals. As Accolade rushed to develop the games promised to Sega, the company saw the departure of co-founder Bob Whitehead, who felt their games were slipping in quality and that the game industry had become tiresome. CEO Allan Epstein also left the company, and Alan Miller once again became the chief executive. By 1993, they had published the commercially successful
platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...
''
Bubsy ''Bubsy'' is a series of platforming video games created by Michael Berlyn and developed and published by Accolade. The games star an anthropomorphic bobcat named Bubsy, a character that takes inspiration from ''Super Mario Bros.'' and ''Son ...
'' (1993), created by Berlyn. Accolade marketed the game to compete with the most recognizable console mascots of the time, namely
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
's
Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...
and Sega's
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...
, and Accolade's sales benefited from publishing ''Bubsy'' for both consoles. Accolade also tried to replicate its advantageous golf license in other sports, including their
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
game '' Pelé!'' (1993) and American football game ''Mike Ditka Power Football'' (1991). The lawsuit with Sega continued to have serious long-term effects for Accolade. Despite succeeding at the
Court of Appeals An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appellat ...
and negotiating an agreement with Sega, the lower court's injunction had interrupted Accolade's sales and development for several months in 1992. Alan Miller estimated that "the commercial damage associated with this injunction ultimately proved to be somewhere around US$15 to US$25 million", leading the company to report major losses in 1993.


New leadership (1994–1999)

Accolade hired a new CEO in 1994, recruiting the former head of
FAO Schwarz FAO Schwarz is an American toy brand and Toy store, retail chain. The company is known for its high-end toys, life-sized stuffed animals, Interactivity, interactive experiences, Product placement, brand integrations, and games. FAO Schwarz clai ...
, Peter Harris, to help them attract much-needed investment. Alan Miller initially stayed on as chairman and head of product development, but quit the company later in the year to work in
medical software Medical software is any software item or system used within a medical context. This can include: * Standalone software used for Medical diagnosis, diagnostic or Therapy, therapeutic purposes. * Software used by health care providers to reduce pape ...
, marking the end of the founders' influence. Harris led the company's efforts to build a new management team and secure new financing from
Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...
, before leaving to become CEO of the
San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...
in 1995. Accolade president Jim Barnett became the new CEO and largely focused their strategy on extending existing franchises. Sales improved under his management. The company expanded the ''Bubsy'' series with multiple titles released on several consoles, including Sega, Nintendo,
Atari Jaguar The Atari Jaguar is a home video game console developed by Atari Corporation and released in North America in November 1993. It is in the fifth generation of video game consoles, and it competed with Fourth generation of video game consoles, fo ...
, and eventually
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
. However, the
second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
and
third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...
installments of the ''Bubsy'' series were commercial disappointments, leading Accolade to ask series creator Mike Berlyn to return as the next game's producer. Berlyn worked on '' Bubsy 3D'' (1996) with a new team, but 3D technology was challenging for the developers. When they requested more time to polish the game, Accolade insisted on keeping the scheduled release date. After its release, the game's technical issues hurt the reputation of the ''Bubsy'' series, as well as that of Accolade as a company. Accolade asked Ford and Reiche to make a third ''Star Control'' game at the same budget as ''Star Control II'', which they turned down to pursue other projects. Instead, the publisher
license A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...
d Reiche and Ford's copyrighted character designs to make '' Star Control 3'' (1996) with a different development team. However, the third game in the series did not live up to Accolade's hopes for the franchise, with reviewers noting the series' change in developer, tone and quality. Still, ''Star Control 3'' was considered a moderate commercial success for Accolade as a publisher, as was the release of ''Deadlock'' (1996), both released in 1996. Accolade saw ''Deadlock'' as the start of a potential comeback. Moreover, '' Test Drive 4'' (1997) and ''Test Drive: Off Road'' (1997) sold well for both the PC and PlayStation platforms, with sales of more than 850,000 and 500,000 copies respectively, making it the top-selling racing series at the time. '' Jack Nicklaus 5'' (1997) was also a critical success, but was a commercial disappointment. Despite Barnett's efforts, Accolade was unable to replicate the success of their earlier releases. With the company in need of a broad commercial success, EA invested in Accolade in 1997 and took over their distribution. The success of ''Test Drive: Off Road'' led the company to focus more heavily on consoles, which meant abandoning a
massively multiplayer online game A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent world, persistent open world, although t ...
project. Accolade previewed several of their 1998 titles at the
Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo) was an annual Trade fair, trade event for the video game industry organized and presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). It was held principally in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2019, wit ...
, with entries in major series such as '' HardBall 6'' (1998), '' Test Drive 5'' (1998), ''Test Drive: Off Road 2'' (1998), and ''Star Control 4'', as well as two original titles: ''Redline'' (1999) and '' Big Air Snowboarding'' (1999). By the end of the year, Accolade released their sequels to ''Test Drive'' as scheduled, while canceling their plans for a fourth ''Star Control'' game. Pitbull Syndicate completed the development of ''Big Air'', which was released at the start of 1999 after a delay. Development was also completed on ''Redline'', and Accolade published the driving-and-shooting game in April 1999.


Acquisition and end (1999–2000)

French publisher
Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA ()), also known as Atari Group, is a French holding company headquartered in Paris that owns mainly video gaming-related interactive entertainment properties. Atari SA's core subsidiaries include ...
purchased Accolade in April 1999, as part of the European company's strategy to gain a distribution network in North America. Infogrames paid US$50 million to acquire Accolade's workforce of 145 employees, their sports franchises such as ''Test Drive'' and ''Hardball'', and Accolade's licensing deals with brands such as
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
. They retained CEO Jim Barnett to lead a new subsidiary company that became Infogrames North America, combining Accolade's workforce with an Infogrames office of 29 employees. As a result, major franchises such as '' Test Drive 6'' (1999) and '' Test Drive: Off-Road 3'' (1999) were published under the "Infogrames North America" name starting in 1999. What followed was a series of acquisitions and consolidations, when Infogrames purchased GT Interactive and renamed it Infogrames, Inc. Infogrames later merged Infogrames North America into a subsidiary of Infogrames, Inc. The merger was completed on October 3, 2000. Later, Infogrames acquired the
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...
brand from
Hasbro Interactive Hasbro Interactive, Inc. (Currently named Atari Interactive, Inc.) is the former video game subsidiary of board game and toy manufacturer Hasbro. Originally formed in 1995 and headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts, Hasbro Interactive initially ...
in 2001, and through the decade slowly re-branded their properties under Atari SA. Atari/Infogrames declared bankruptcy in 2013, and game publisher
Tommo Tommo Inc. is an American video game publisher based in City of Industry, California. Founded in 1990, Tommo started out as a small independent distributor of imported video games. Since 2006, Tommo also operates a publishing subsidiary, UFO In ...
purchased the "Accolade" trademark and several related assets. In June 2017,
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
–based
holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...
Billionsoft announced its acquisition of the "Accolade" trademark, and together with developer
Black Forest Games Black Forest Games GmbH is a German video game developer based in Offenburg. The company was founded in July 2012 by a team of 40 staff members, including chief executive officer Andreas Speer, previously employed by Spellbound Entertainment, w ...
and publisher Tommo, announced it would develop new entries for several Accolade franchises, starting with the ''Bubsy'' series. In April 2023, it was announced that Atari had re-acquired over 100 different titles from Billionsoft, including select Accolade titles as well as the company's trademark and brand. Using this trademark, Atari announced ''Accolade Sports Collection'', a compilation of Accolade sports titles developed by QUByte Interactive, in January 2025.


See also

* List of Accolade games


References


External links

* * {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000511080346/http://www.us.infogrames.com/, title=Official website of Infogrames North America, date=May 11, 2000 1984 establishments in California 1999 mergers and acquisitions 2000 disestablishments in California Companies based in San Jose, California Defunct companies based in California Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies based in California Video game companies disestablished in 2000 Video game companies established in 1984 Video game development companies Video game publishers