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Accolade, Inc.

Moby ID: 23

Overview edit · view history

Formed in 1984 by Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. This name was chosen mostly on the basis that their former place of employment (Activision to be specific) was based on an alphabetically higher name than Atari (which both of them worked at before co-founding Activision), and they wanted their name to be above Activision. The company also owned a European distribution office.

Accolade was a success early on, due to their technical prowess, and many former Activision employees coming over to the company. Accolade's luck would turn around in the early 1990's due to the small recession. The company's sales declined in the early 90's, Alan Miller left (in 1994), and it was only a five years later that they were acquired by Infogrames (which ironically changed their name to Atari in 2003, the name of the company the co-founders started at).

They were also involved in an unprecedented lawsuit between them and SEGA over licensing issues with the SEGA Genesis and re-engineering the Genesis to bypass the lockout chips that ensure SEGA's licensing of the games.

The Accolade label was revived in June 2017 by Billion Soft (Hong Kong) Limited, before being bought back by Atari in April 2023.

Credited on 153 Games from 1984 to 2025

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Accolade Sports Collection (2025 on Windows, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch...)
HardBall! + HardBall II (2024 on Windows)
Bubsy: Two-Fur (2015 on Windows)
Slave Zero (1999 on Windows, Dreamcast)
Test Drive: Off-Road 3 (1999 on Windows, PlayStation)
Redline (1999 on Windows)
HardBall 6: 2000 Edition (1999 on Windows)
HardBall 99 (1998 on PlayStation)
Big Air (1998 on PlayStation)
Test Drive 5 (1998 on Windows, PlayStation)
Test Drive: Off-Road 2 (1998 on Windows, PlayStation)
HardBall 6 (1998 on Windows)
Deadlock II: Shrine Wars (1998 on Windows)
Jack Nicklaus 5 (1997 on Windows)
Test Drive 4 (1997 on Windows, PlayStation)
Test Drive: Off-Road (1997 on DOS, PlayStation)
Jack Nicklaus 4 (1997 on Windows, Macintosh)
NFL Legends Football '98 (1997 on Windows)
Bubsy 3D (1996 on PlayStation)
Pitball (1996 on PlayStation)

[ view all ]

History +

1999

Acquired by Infogrames.

1992

The company is unhappy with the high development fees from Sega and Nintendo and reverse engineers the consoles instead of paying. Sega sues Accolade and wins, but eventually Accolade won on appeal.

1988

Sales of $16 million, mainly with sport simulations. 9% market share in North America.

1984

Company founded by Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead.

Trivia +

The address of Accolade is: 5300 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 500, San Jose, CA 95129 USA

The company website used to be at http://www.accolade.com/

According to rumours, the name Accolade was not coincidence. Founders Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead apparently named their company Accolade because it came before Activision alphabetically, a company they had founded and left, inferring that Accolade was superior to their previous company. Apparently when forming Activision, they chose that name because it came before Atari. Later, a new game development company, Acclaim apparently formulated their name because it came before Accolade.

Source: Wikipedia

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