The Acquire game is based on the buying and selling of hotel chains named Tower, Luxor, American, Festival, Worldwide, Imperial, and Continental. The hotels are indicated by square tiles placed on a rectangular grid. A player gets his turn by placing a square tile, buying three shares of stocks, and acquiring up to six hotel tiles in hand. When a chain of hotels is formed by tiles placed adjacent in rows or columns, they obtain one of the seven hotel chain names. Stocks represent the value of hotel chains, which start from $ 200 to $ 400 per share. A maximum of six players can play this game.

In the game of Acquire, the player must make stock transactions in public; however, the stock holding and cash can be kept concealed. The main aim of a player is to have as many stocks in a high-priced chain of hotels as possible. This game was designed by Sid Sackson in 1960, and is at present owned by Avalon Hill. This game was released in 1962 by a company called '3M', and later by Schmidt Spiel and Avalon Hill in Germany.

Initially, when the Acquire game was released, the rules for playing it were quite different from what they are today. In 1979, the Acquire game won the Speil des Jahres Game of the Year award, and found mention in the Games 100 Alltime list. Games Magazine has included Acquire in the 'Hall of Fame' in their buyer's guide.