Acquire started life as the Milton Bradley gambling-themed board game Lotto played in childhood by Sid Sackson, who went on to become a game designer. He reworked the game into a wargame he called "Lotto War". Sackson (along with Alex Randolph) was commissioned by 3M to start a new games division in 1962. When he submitted the game to 3M in 1963, he called the game "Vacation". 3M suggested the name change to Acquire, and Sackson agreed. The game was test marketed in several U.S. cities in 1963, and production began in 1964 as a part of the bookshelf games series. The 3M game division was sold to Avalon Hill in 1976 and became part of their bookcase game series. Avalon Hill made "Computer Acquire" for the PET, Apple II and TRS-80 in 1980. The Avalon brand became part of Hasbro in 1998. Hasbro slightly reworked and reissued the game in 2000, but thereafter discontinued it. In the mid-2000s, the game was transferred to a Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast. Wizards celebrated ""50 years of Avalon Hill Games"" with the release of the 2008 edition (though the game was not yet 50 years old). In 2016, the game was transferred back to the Hasbro games division and republished in Nov. 2016 under the Avalon label.