3D Realms shuts down

[kupomogli]

I don't think 3D Realms should have shut down and stopped Duke Nukem Forever. Take Two filed a lawsuit against them for failure to deliver under a contract agreement.

http://www.qj.net/Take-Two-No-Duke-Nukem-Forever-Take-this-lawsuit-3D-Realms-or-what-s-left-of-it-/pg/49/aid/131349 [source Bloomberg.]

[j_factor]

Wow. They paid $12 million for the rights to Duke Nukem Forever. Idiots.

[Push Upstairs]

To be fair, they paid that in 2000...when DNF was only on the 2nd or 3rd game engine...

[The 1 2 P]

Wow. They paid $12 million for the rights to Duke Nukem Forever. Idiots.

Shouldn't that give them control of the DNF game? I still think they should rename it if they ever choose to complete it, but this contract should be enough for Take Two to now be the sole owner of this game. And I guarantee that whatever they decide to do with it, it's not going to take them over a decade to finish it.

[roushimsx]

Wow. They paid $12 million for the rights to Duke Nukem Forever. Idiots.
Shame 3D Realms didn't see a penny of that 12 million.

[Ed Oscuro]

Shouldn't that give them control of the DNF game?
No.

You get what's in the contract, nothing more or less.

3D Realms could still release this game under a different title, but Take Two would obviously feel they have grounds to sue (if not an actual basis). Hopefully what'll happen is they'll soon finally poop the thing out so Take-Two can get their money and the two can finally part ways.

[Diosoth]

Take Two paid $12 million? And how exactly has 3D Realms wasted this much money and not made a game yet? For that matter, where IS all the money now? Okay, okay, it's 3D Realms... probably all gone to hookers.

Screw a lawsuit. George Broussard and some of the others need to be brought up on theft and fraud charges. They have clearly defrauded Take Two for lots of money and there is no evidence of a game. A few seconds of "recent footage" doesn't count.

The sad part of this? Croteam probably spent MORE TIME writing DNF jokes into the Serious Sam games than 3DR has spent actually working on DNF.

[roushimsx]

Take Two paid $12 million? And how exactly has 3D Realms wasted this much money and not made a game yet? For that matter, where IS all the money now? Okay, okay, it's 3D Realms... probably all gone to hookers.
Take 2 didn't pay 3DR any money. 3DR was almost entirely self funded (except for a small amount received from GT Interactive back when production started) thanks to their licensing and publishing deals on games like Max Payne, Prey and the Duke Nukem IP. Apparently, even the $30 million buyout rumor was bullshit and Take 2 didn't offer them shit.

[ProgrammingAce]

But what's the point of having a publisher in this industry when they're not funding development? Doubly so, considering 3D Realms was a publisher themselves..

[roushimsx]

But what's the point of having a publisher in this industry when they're not funding development? Doubly so, considering 3D Realms was a publisher themselves..
GT Interactive was the original publisher and Take 2 bought out the exclusive publishing rights to the game, so 3DR couldn't self publish it even if they had wanted to.

3DR didn't really do much publishing back then (other than on the shareware circuit, but let's face it, people self published out of their basements in those days) and I'm sure the 600k or whatever they got back then to kickstart development was seen as a pretty healthy amount at the time before they were able to really monetize the Duke IP during the 32bit era.