3D Realms shuts down

[Overbite]

http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=58519

Always bet on Duke!
Always be..oh god

5-6-09
The day the dream died.

[Diosoth]

Maybe if they didn't change game engines every 3 months, they would have actually finished it years ago.

This company has made maybe 1 game in recent years. Producing Max Payne doesn't count.

[roushimsx]

This company has made maybe 1 game in recent years. Producing Max Payne doesn't count.

They haven't made anything since Shadow Warrior and that game sucked. They've produced and published a bunch of stuff (Max Payne, Prey, Duke spin offs on PS1/N64/PC).

Current rumor is that they asked Take 2 for more money and Take 2 said "No". Take 2 wanted to buy the Duke Nukem IP and 3DR said "No". George posting on the Shack for Take 2 to STFU a few years ago and the horrible pace of development (possible release in 2010) probably didn't help.

p.s. I'm still looking forward to seeing the game get finished and released, most likely by a second developer. Hopefully Monolith. Hopefully a Monolith that realized that they were on the wrong track with FEAR 2 and is looking at reclaiming the glory days of NOLF / NOLF 2 / Tron 2 / AvP 2 / etc.

[The 1 2 P]

Hopefully this will put an end to all that "it will be released one day" talk. Forever has finally come to an end....atleast 7 years too late.

[Diosoth]

They haven't made anything since Shadow Warrior and that game sucked. They've produced and published a bunch of stuff (Max Payne, Prey, Duke spin offs on PS1/N64/PC).

Current rumor is that they asked Take 2 for more money and Take 2 said "No". Take 2 wanted to buy the Duke Nukem IP and 3DR said "No". George posting on the Shack for Take 2 to STFU a few years ago and the horrible pace of development (possible release in 2010) probably didn't help.

p.s. I'm still looking forward to seeing the game get finished and released, most likely by a second developer. Hopefully Monolith. Hopefully a Monolith that realized that they were on the wrong track with FEAR 2 and is looking at reclaiming the glory days of NOLF / NOLF 2 / Tron 2 / AvP 2 / etc.

Monolith blew it when they sold off the Blood franchise to a company that buried it forever.

I also doubt the game is even complete enough to actually finish. We've never seen any solid evidence they were ever actually working on a game. A few seconds of gameplay from the late 90s, a short movie in 2007... for all I know or care, Broussard was just using it as an excuse to embezzle funds. It'd probably be easier for a company to start from scratch than to mess with whatever 3DR managed to actually make.

[roushimsx]

Monolith blew it when they sold off the Blood franchise to a company that buried it forever.

Monolith was a pretty young company back then and I'm sure they needed the money. It didn't help that Blood 2 and its expansion pack were serious bombs (both critically and commercially). Not sure how well the stuff they were publishing (Captain Claw, Rage of Mages, Septera Core, etc) was doing, either....

Staying afloat at least meant that we got the aforementioned rad as fuck games (NOLF / NOLF 2 / AvP 2 / Tron 2.0 / FEAR), so it worked out pretty well in the end I'd say. Too bad they've started moving in a direction that I don't totally dig since like 2006. Oh well!

Why Inforgrams/Atari doesn't want to do anything with it, I'll never know. It's as nonsensical as Lucasarts ignoring the cries of its adventure gaming fanbase to make their games available in some fashion. GOG / Steam / whatever. Minimal fucking effort here. Instead it's like they'd rather encourage people to pirate the games or drive up the prices on the second hand market. wtf.

I have no idea who thought that it'd be a good idea to throw Fate of Atlantis onto the Wii version of Staff of Kings, but I hope to god he gets a nice bonus or a promotion of some sort. At the very least, give that man a cookie. Bummer that it's not on the PS2 version, but beggers can't be choosers and it's a fucking miracle that it's happening at all.

Edit - Oh and back on topic, I don't disagree that the game is too incomplete to release as is. That's why they need to pass it off to another developer to massage it and develop it for a year or so. You know, kind of like what Swinging Ape got tasked to do for Starcraft: Ghost...until Blizzard was all like, "oh I don't think this is something that we want to pursue anymore so we're just going to kill the whole fucking project". Jerks.

[Sonicwolf]

Duke Nukem Forever. The Duke Nukem fans waited forever, and now its never.

Sad.

I remember playing Duke Nukem 3D when it first came out. I was little and my parents hovered over me to keep a context on the game's content (after the parental lock was initiated of course)

[slapdash]

Pft. Companies come and go, but intellectual property never dies. Oh ye of little faith.

[Clownzilla]

Pft. Companies come and go, but intellectual property never dies. Oh ye of little faith.

Once 3D Realms goes then the Duke Nukem IP will be much easier (and cheaper) to buy. Somebody will pick it up and do something with it.

[Diosoth]

This no doubt kills the DS and PSP Trilogy releases, too. Oh well.

[Baloo]

Looks like Duke Nukem Forever just became Duke Nukem ForNever it seems.

But if Take-Two still retains publishing rights, who knows, they might lease them out to a good developer this time.

[RCM]

While I never dealt with them directly, it's pretty clear that the folks running the show at 3DR were really out of touch. At least that's what my colleagues conveyed. REgardless, it's too bad we never got a proper Duke sequel.

[roushimsx]

This no doubt kills the DS and PSP Trilogy releases, too. Oh well.

Deep Silver announced that the DS and PSP releases of Critical Mass are going to be unaffected by whatever is going down at 3DR.

[Diosoth]

Looks like Duke Nukem Forever just became Duke Nukem ForNever it seems.

But if Take-Two still retains publishing rights, who knows, they might lease them out to a good developer this time.

Given how many Duke Nukem games have been made by OTHER COMPANIES since Duke 3D was released, it really hasn't been a 3D Realms franchise for a long time.

[grolt]

Fools. While they were wasting time and money on endless rethinks of the same tired concept, the Quakes, Unreals, Tomb Raiders, Resident Evils and the like all crafted franchises and made a mint. This certainly closes off one of the biggest jokes in gaming development history.

[Push Upstairs]

First "Chinese Democracy" gets released, now the end of Duke Nukem Forever.

We're losing all the tried and true jokes.

[roushimsx]

We're losing all the tried and true jokes.

As long as Spark Unlimited continues to release games, we'll have at least one running joke.

[Vlcice]

First "Chinese Democracy" gets released, now the end of Duke Nukem Forever.

We're losing all the tried and true jokes.

DNF was pretty much the last of old era vapourware, wasn't it? Team Fortress 2, Mother 3, Too Human, Chinese Democracy all were eventually released. Even Smile got an actual release.

[Trumpman]

This sucks...Duke Nukem was my childhood. I always held out some (foolish) hope that DNF would be released, but it looks like all the naysayers were right all along.

[RARusk]

"I have no idea who thought that it'd be a good idea to throw Fate of Atlantis onto the Wii version of Staff of Kings, but I hope to god he gets a nice bonus or a promotion of some sort."

Which version of "Fate of Atlantis" - Action or Graphic Adventure?