Disney/Playdom shuts down all Acclaim games

Back when Playdom first acquired Acclaim Games back in May, we were surprised that the company published MMO and casual games, instead of games like Mortal Kombat. We were almost equally surprised recently to find that the company will be shutting down all of its games, leaving 15 million registered users out in the cold.

A short note on the Acclaim Games web site notes that "all Acclaim games will no longer be in service effective August 26, 2010," though as Gamasutra notes, games like RockFREE and the company's still-in-development MMO Kogamu seem to still be available. The company will be offering reimbursements for unused "Acclaim coins" virtual currency and for purchases made in the game 9Dragons over the past month.

So why purchase a company if you're just going to shut down its games a few months later? Well part of the decision might have to do with Playdom's own acquisition by Disney last month. Perhaps Playdom's new owners saw less potential in the company's games than the original purchasers did. Or perhaps both companies simply agreed that the real value in Acclaim was in its employees and its potential for future hits, not its current game catalog. In either case, It will be interesting to see what comes next for this piece of a growing social game conglomerate.