Take-Two taps Juiced

Take-Two Interactive could be about to leap in and secure the publishing rights to Juiced, the British-developed arcade racer Acclaim would be publishing at the moment if the embattled firm hadn't shut down at the start of the month.

Having received some fairly positive reviews from magazines prior to Acclaim's demise, Juiced, developed by UK-based Juice Games, is arguably one of the more attractive lumps of flesh left to pick from Acclaim's tattered carcass.

Take-Two certainly seems to think so, having pledged around $10 million, according to US reports, in a tentative agreement that would buy the publishing rights to the PS2, Xbox and PC versions for $8.125 million, and potentially include royalty pay-outs of $1.875 million.

The deal isn't final yet, though, and Acclaim is apparently open to bids until September 30th. Interestingly, even if Take-Two did buy the rights, the money would be split between Fund4Games, which financed Juiced's development, and Acclaim's main creditor GMAC Financial.

Of course, the other question here is whether Take-Two really needs another tweaker-centric arcade racing game, given that it already has Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition on its books and due out on the same formats. The obvious comparison to draw is EA, which doesn't seem to be having trouble convincing punters of the worth of its Burnout and Need For Speed Undeground franchises, but Juiced and MC3 are arguably even closer to one another in content terms.

Expect to hear more about Juiced's future around the end of the month.