Talk:Accolade (company)/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Indrian (talk · contribs) 22:07, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

I'll tackle this one. Comments to follow. Indrian (talk) 22:07, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

"What could possibly go wrong?" Namcokid47 ^(Contribs) 04:16, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

You're brave. So many magazine citations that I went cross eyed. Looking forward to bringing this up to quality. Shooterwalker (talk) 15:09, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

• Just checking if Indrian still has time for this. Standing by and ready to fix any remaining issues. Shooterwalker (talk) 15:44, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

• Yes, the holidays got in the way. I will review this week. Thanks for the ping. Indrian (talk) 18:01, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

• No pressure, Indrian. Checking back one more time, either way. Shooterwalker (talk) 14:48, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

Giving this a lookover "Gameography" should definitely be renamed to "Games" or "Games Developed." The list is also quite long and may need its own article.NightFire19 (talk) 04:43, 25 December 2020 (UTC)

Here we go:

Lead

• "The company later published the acclaimed Star Control and Bubsy series" - I think calling Bubsy an acclaimed series is a bit of a stretch. The first game did very well, but the other games in the series, not nearly so much. And Bubsy 3D was pretty much universally reviled in its own time and now.
• "Accolade was acquired by Atari SA (known then as "Infogrames Entertainment SA")" - Just say it was acquired by Infogrames, since that was the company at the time. The fact that it became Atari is already covered in the next sentence.

Origins

• "Activision was the first company to operate independent game console companies" - I know you are trying to explain its position as the first third-party developer, but this formulation makes little sense.

Transformation and Later Years

• "This included releasing several games on the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive" - I know we have ugly naming wars about Genesis every so often, but listing the console as the Genesis and Mega Drive makes it seem like you are talking about two different systems to the uninitiated. Accolade is an American company and was developing console games in that American context, so in this case it should be Genesis.
• "Alan Miller quit the company in 1994 to work in medical software, marking the end of the founders' influence. What followed were a series of new CEOs, starting with toy industry veteran Peter L. Harris." - This is the wrong sequence of events. Peter Harris was brought in as CEO to replace Miller in the role, but he continued as chairman and head of game development. Then Miller left, presumably because he was unhappy the venture capitalists replaced him as CEO (he had previously forced both Tom Frisina and Allan Epstein out as CEO and clearly liked being in control). That last is speculation, so obviously don't put that in the article, but it is fact that Harris was in before Miller left.
• Obviously take care of that citation needed tag. I know the statement is true, and there should be press releases or newspaper articles floating around to support it.
• "By 2000, Infogrames merged Infogrames North America (previously Accolade) into Infogrames Inc." - The article just identified Accolade as Infogrames North America two sentences ago, though it did so in a somewhat obtuse way. Maybe clarify earlier that Accolade was renamed Infogrames North America and eliminate this parenthetical as redundant.

Gameography

• Mostly fine, but two entries list U.S. Gold as the publisher, when they were just the European publisher. This makes it look like Accolade did not publish either game. Also, one game is credited to "Ballistic" as publisher, but this was just a brand name Accolade created for its console products and not a separate company.

In addition to the specific points raised above, it does seem like the article is a little light on corporate history. Its missing Frisina's departure in 1987 when he was forced out by Miller over company strategy and his replacement by former Activision VP of operations Allan Epstein. Epstein himself left in 1991, and Miller took direct control as CEO until the VCs brought in Harris. Its also missing the ruinous financial impact of the Sega case, which is a big part of the reason they needed to seek VC funding in the first place. Its also missing the Warner Music Group investment in the company in early 1995 following the Prudential investment. In exchange, Warner became Accolade's worldwide distributor, which lasted until the EA deal. There are a frustrating lack of articles on Accolade out there since it was a pretty small closely-held company for most of its existence, but some of this personnel change info at least appeared in the SF Chronicle, which can be found in places like Newsbank, which I realize requires membership with a library that has the proper subscription. Still, not having some of this in the article does result in a few holes. Its not an FA nomination, so comprehensiveness is not a requirement, but it would be nice if we can get a little more of this in there.

Overall, this article is very well-written and informative. I feel it is close to GA status, so I will go ahead and put this nomination  On hold while these concerns are addressed. Indrian (talk) 16:33, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

• I'm thankful to have a review from someone who knows the subject, because this was a tough one and I had to learn as I went. I tried to incorporate all of your suggestions, but the fact/research based ones were still challenging due to an obscurity of sources. Hopefully this gets us all the way there. And if you don't mind, I might follow up with you afterwards just to get a list of unverified-but-verifiable facts that would tell a more complete story (in case someone wants to try to bring this to FA, possibly me). Let me know if you'd like to see any other edits. Shooterwalker (talk) 20:45, 18 January 2021 (UTC)
• Checking back in with Indrian. Hope I'm not being a pest. Shooterwalker (talk) 15:09, 24 January 2021 (UTC)
  • Certainly not being a pest; I completely understand your interest in wrapping this up. Should be in the next couple of days. Thank you for your patience. Indrian (talk) 18:20, 24 January 2021 (UTC)
• Looking good Shooterwalker. I appreciate your work to get as much historical context into the article as you could with the limited sources. One error did get introduced, however: Peter Harris became CEO in May 1994. Alan Miller was CEO between 1992 and 1994 after Allan Epstein left. The source you used is not wrong per se, its just poorly written in such a way that it implies he became CEO immediately after leaving FAO Schwartz in 1992, which is not what happened. After that gets sorted out, we should be good. Indrian (talk) 15:45, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

• Thanks again, Indrian. I'll admit I'm out of my depth with the actual knowledge, and I'm resting on what little research there is. If you rely entirely on the sources, CEOs just materialize into existence depending on the year. I can make the changes but I'm a little vague on what would make it more accurate. Are there one or two statements I should re-phrase? Shooterwalker (talk) 16:37, 26 January 2021 (UTC)
• Following up on this one more time with Indrian. Having trouble and could use some specifics. Shooterwalker (talk) 21:05, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

• I think I can find some articles to fill in the blanks on this. I will try to do so within the next week. Once that is cleared up, I believe I will be able to pass it. I don't think you will have to do anything else to the article. I appreciate your hard work and your patience. Indrian (talk) 21:11, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

Okay, it took a little longer than I planned, but I corralled some sources to better document all the management changes at the company between 1988 and 1995 and added that material to the article. I think we are good now, so I will go ahead and promote. Thank you for all your hard work on the article! Indrian (talk) 18:01, 15 February 2021 (UTC)