3DRealms/DNF dead - Today is truly the day PC gaming died

[chronovore]

I also caught the fated, ironic similarity between DNF and Did Not Finish. Ouch; like naming a ship "Enterprise" -- things are bound to get strange.

Isn't the name for this in movie making called "production hell"? The number of movies which were in production hell but came out and were pretty good, you can count on your hands. The ones which were actually really good can be counted on one hand.

In all likelihood, the kind of guy who comes up with Duke Nukem is not the kind of reserved, conservative, pillar of artistic integrity who would walk away from $30M just to let his pet project die. It's more likely that the terms of the contract were not able to be fulfilled due to some other reason, such as toy, movie, or comic rights being untransferable, etc.

Anyway, who knows if this is the final, final death? Fallout was supposedly dead when the original dev went down, and look how that's turned out.

[chronovore]

The next one will probably be called Duke Nukem: Forever and a Day -- and ship on time.

[maxy]

28 Screens and entire plot leaked,

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/46948/Duke-Nukem-Forever-28-Hi-Res-Screenshots-Entire-Plot-Leaked

Titty City 

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

I'm still kinda half expecting Rebellion to somehow eventually sweep in and make a playable something out of 3D Realms' mess.  They attract troubled projects like flies to shit.

[Bebpo]

The plot leak is awesome.  Game really should have came out.

So uh, why did 3DRealms close in the first place when the project was 6 months from completion?  They somehow had the funds to keep paying people for the last 10 years...seems odd they would run out just as they were actually about to finish something.

[Don Flamenco]

So uh, why did 3DRealms close in the first place when the project was 6 months from completion?  They somehow had the funds to keep paying people for the last 10 years...seems odd they would run out just as they were actually about to finish something.

From what I could gather(by reading GAF, lol), they asked Take Two for five million to finish the game. Take Two offered them 30 million for the Duke ip and to finish the game. I guess this meant that if 3Drealms decided to shelve the game, take two could just give it to someone else and finally get a finished project. 3DRealms weren't having it so they decided to just close up shop.

I wonder what the full story is.  As it is, that doesn't make any sense.  It sounds like a dramatic neogaffian version, where the devs were too proud and passionate to sell off their IP, even when in a desperate position. 

[Hollywood]

I'm still kinda half expecting Rebellion to somehow eventually sweep in and make a playable something out of 3D Realms' mess.  They attract troubled projects like flies to shit.

No, fuck them. They apparently screwed over Free Radical for the rights to do Battlefront 3, using Free Radical assets. I'd rather never see another Duke title again.

So uh, why did 3DRealms close in the first place when the project was 6 months from completion?  They somehow had the funds to keep paying people for the last 10 years...seems odd they would run out just as they were actually about to finish something.

From what I could gather(by reading GAF, lol), they asked Take Two for five million to finish the game. Take Two offered them 30 million for the Duke ip and to finish the game. I guess this meant that if 3Drealms decided to shelve the game, take two could just give it to someone else and finally get a finished project. 3DRealms weren't having it so they decided to just close up shop.

So, 3DRealms decided to make zero money and try to auction off their assets which would likely go for a much lower price than sell it to Take Two? That pretty much makes zero sense. The game is probably going to come out somewhere by someone. 3DRealms isn't just going to sit on it. EA should buy the rights to it and buy the publishing rights from Take Two and finish the game. They buy everything else.

[duckman2000]

I'd buy it on account of it being a less than bloody serious shooter. There's a critical shortage of such games.

[chronovore]

I'd buy it on account of it being a less than bloody serious shooter. There's a critical shortage of such games.

Did you get in on that D3 Publisher one, The Return of Matt Hazard?

[dark1x]

I'd buy it on account of it being a less than bloody serious shooter. There's a critical shortage of such games.

Did you get in on that D3 Publisher one, The Return of Matt Hazard?

I was actually excited about that one, but from what I've read, the final results are pretty terrible.  The gameplay sounds absolutely awful to the point that it would be difficult to enjoy any of the humor.  It's a damn shame too.

Honestly, 50 Cent Blood on the Sand is probably one of the only decent games of this type out there right now. 

[TVC15]

Yeah, Matt Hazard unfortunately tries to be a bit too much of a real game.  Also, the targeting is inaccurate, which kinda kills it.

I like the Simpsons Game quite a bit.  It's actually pretty funny.  The mechanics are pretty simple, but even when the bad camera murders you, you aren't sent 5 minutes backwards to the last checkpoint.  You restart immediately where you died.  It really makes it so that the game is playable solely for the humor.

[Dickie Dee]

28 Screens and entire plot leaked,

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/46948/Duke-Nukem-Forever-28-Hi-Res-Screenshots-Entire-Plot-Leaked

Titty City 

So awesome. This is the kind of game that didn't even have to be completely perfect to be enjoyable and a must play. Oh well, I imagine someone's gonna do something with it or the IP in some form.

[Positive Touch]

why sue someone with no money?

[SantaC]

TT sues 3DRealms over the delay:

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. filed a breach of contract suit against Apogee Software Ltd. this week in a Manhattan Court over the developer's "continually delayed" Duke Nukem sequel. Details of the suit were not disclosed in a report by Bloomberg, nor has the New York County Civil Court provided specifics about the damages Take-Two is seeking.

(For the record, the legal name of 3D Realms is Apogee Software Ltd., the party being sued. It is a separate entity from Apogee Software LLC, developers of the still alive Duke Nukem Trilogy.)

According to the complaint, "Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever."

Broussard or whatever his name is, must be devastated. Duke was his baby.

[Great Rumbler]

why sue someone with no money?

Even if they don't have any money, they still have potentially profitable assets [i.e. Duke Nukem intellectual properties and DNF code].

[The Fake Shemp]

There is probably a great book out of this trainwreck.

[dark1x]

I'd actually be very interested in a book on this whole thing.

[The Fake Shemp]

Get that dude that wrote Game Over to do it.

[chronovore]

There is probably a great book out of this trainwreck.

And the book wouldn't take 12 years to finish. Or DNF, as the case may be.

[Gazunta]

In theory, maybe someone already got commissioned to do the the book.

In theory, that person already started work on it.

In theory, the author and publisher got told to stop work on it.

In theory, the book was canceled.

In theory.

[SantaC]

There is probably a great book out of this trainwreck.

When it's done

[The Fake Shemp]

In theory, maybe someone already got commissioned to do the the book.

In theory, that person already started work on it.

In theory, the author and publisher got told to stop work on it.

In theory, the book was canceled.

In theory.

In theory, who could tell a publisher to stop work on a book?

[The Fake Shemp]

This shit just got real!

[demi]

meh. dyack's episode was more entertaining than this. at least too human came out.

[Joe Molotov]

Leak them, leak theam, leak them! 

[Purple Filth]

haven't the assets already been leaked though

hmm

[Sho Nuff]

What engine was this running under again?

[Joe Molotov]

What engine was this running under again?

Heavily modified Unreal 2.

They should have stuck with the Build Engine. It had Voxels.

[brawndolicious]

That doesn't show shit.

[ManaByte]

Jace Hall has no business harping on other companies failures. Matrix Online anyone?

[ManaByte]

Jace Hall has no business harping on other companies failures. Matrix Online anyone?

Shut up, nobody cares about MMOs. Those things always fail.

Ok. How about Warner Brothers Interactive? That was a massive failure that he oversaw. Hell, he made some promise that if any licensed game they make doesn't score high on Metacritic, they'd fine the developer. He ignored that rule when the Monolith games flopped.

[demi]

Nobody cares about this game or Jace Hall. Go sell your console again

[originalz]

http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/iscroll/C_PDF?CatID=495993&CID=601457-2009&FName=0

You can now read the entire complaint filed by Take2!

Some interesting info buried in there...

[border]

The complaint is pretty interesting.

Everyone assumed that 3DR was able to fuck around for so long because they had all this magical money from the first Duke games and Max Payne and Prey and stuff.  It turns out they ran out of cash in 2007, and had to get a 2.5 million dollar advance from Take2.  The advance wasn't actually delivered until July 2008....so they either blew through all that money in 9 months, or they just decided to take the money and run.

Take2 is demanding all artwork and source code from the project.....so maybe they will try to salvage it.  The lawsuit could probably take years though, so I am not expecting anything.

Take2 claims that 3DR/Apogee has a ton of money squirreled away in an "offshore account" that it can use to pay off its obligations.  Not sure how common that is for developers.