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Duke Nukem Forever decides it's better to litigate out than fade away
Developers close up shop all the time. We know the story. Lots of money changes hands, differences between the developer and the publisher come and go, stockholders get nervous, people quit, funding dries up, the studio closes, the game goes away, fans variously gloat and wail. In the annals of common stories, it's right up there with boy meets girl.
But it's not quite going to play out that way in the case of Duke Nukem Forever, which looked like it was just going to go away when 3D Realms supposedly closed up shop recently. According to an official announcement, Duke developer 3D Realms is still in business.3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing. 3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6th, while we regroup as a company. While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.
It's almost endearing how the announcement starts out as a press release, complete with a dateline, and then quickly devolves into a blog post and then a rant. Also cute are the three-letter abbreviations where you normally put the stock ticker symbols for a publicly traded company. Instead, 3D Realms (3DR) is just helpfully alerting you to the fact that they're going to reference themselves and their game in short-hand later on in the press release.
The bottom line is that no one's going to see a Duke Nukem game anytime soon. For all intents and purposes, Duke Nukem Forever has left the hands of game developers and is now in the hands of lawyers. In a sad way, it's a very American fate.
By Blue Guyute at 11:25 AM ON 05/19/09
I'm kinda stunned at how desperately 3DR seems to be holding on to the DN franchise. The whole idea of a 'arnie' parody seems kinda antiquated at this point.
While I'm sure older PC gamers would check out DNF, I kinda doubt anyone without a nostalgia factor would give a shit. (although mabye if there was enough gratuitus nudity you could sell it to kids.)
By Neuromancer at 1:40 PM ON 05/19/09
Mr. Guyute I must respectfully disagree. With all the generic shooters these days, I think Duke would have stood out from the crowd. I don't know about you but I'd rather try DNF than another military shooter set in an unnamed, but vaguely Middle Eastern, country.
By Solice at 6:44 PM ON 05/19/09
Neuromancer I must in turn respectfully disagree with you. When this game was first conceptualized, I was learning to drive. Needless to say I have been driving for some time now. All of this reminds me of another game that was way overdue and no one thought would be released. How many people remember Daikatana? At this point, no game can live up to 13 years of hype, and in my opinion if it was that good, they wouldnt have had to redo it so many times over the past decade.
By teajay at 8:39 PM ON 05/19/09
What's up here?
By Chijts at 1:07 PM ON 05/20/09
I wish they had gotten round to actually making ONE game. It looks like they got close to finishing at certain points then a new technology came along and they opted with that. It's ridiculous. Surely it makes more sense to make a good game and make money from it to make an even better one, than trying to make some sort of ultimate masterpiece.
Duke is such an awesome character because he's so over-the-top. Hell people still quote some of his catchphrases! I'm sure alot of people just want to play games for a laugh and because they're fun, not because it's some epic space opera or grizzled WW2 shooter that takes itself seriously. Of course there's room for those, but there's also room for the Duke.
By jalf at 3:06 PM ON 05/21/09
Duke is an awesome character?
Yes, I guess so, if Die Hard is your idea of deep and moving storylines.
Gamers are such classy and discerning customers... ;)
Duke was never really a character. Just a bundle of catchphrases and stereotypes that were cool in the 90's. I'm not sure why some people think that's the same as "a character".
jalf:
Duke is an awesome character? Yes, I guess so, if Die Hard is your idea of deep and moving storylines. Gamers are ...More »