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RIP Duke Nukem Forever. 3D Realms to close

Clockwork said:
An epic event for an epic game and it's history. For much of the games 13 year development period the game has been vaporware in the minds of the press and public. Why not make it so (at least in perception)?

If anything it get's people talking about the game more than they ever have in quite some time. Hell, you have people saying they would be money for an unfinished product.
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The same idea hit me when I read the (Fake?) stroy about meetings with EPIC.
One last massive stunt.
But it more then likey is there shutting down cus' of money.
 
I'm so sure that either this is a hoax, or DNF will get picked up and finished. There is NO WAY a game like this just dies a miserable death. No way. It's NOT going to happen. Duke will definitely be back, and I will buy four copies.
 
ultim8p00 said:
I'm so sure that either this is a hoax, or DNF will get picked up and finished. There is NO WAY a game like this just dies a miserable death. No way. It's NOT going to happen. Duke will definitely be back, and I will buy four copies.
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I expect the DNF assets to be auctioned on ebay very soon.
 
ultim8p00 said:
I'm so sure that either this is a hoax, or DNF will get picked up and finished. There is NO WAY a game like this just dies a miserable death. No way. It's NOT going to happen. Duke will definitely be back, and I will buy four copies.
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There is NO WAY a company that hasn't released a game in 13 years could go out of business. It's GOTTA be a hoax.

Listen to yourselves, get a fucking grip.
 
ultim8p00 said:
Wanna bet on that? I fully expect DNF to be released at least within the next three years, probably much sooner than that.
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Yes. I'm going to bet the planet Jupiter and 2 of its bitch moons.
 
Sinatar said:
There is NO WAY a company that hasn't released a game in 13 years could go out of business. It's GOTTA be a hoax.

Listen to yourselves, get a fucking grip.
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They turned down $30m, if that rumor is correct, easily enough to finish the project.

Think of that. They would rather go out of business than complete the project. Does that seem logical to you?

They could easily get a publisher to pay for development.
 
You guys who talk about 3D Realms not releasing anything "in 13/15 years" do know what they also released games as a publisher, not just a developer, right?
 
EmCeeGramr said:
You guys who talk about 3D Realms not releasing anything "in 13/15 years" do know what they also released games as a publisher, not just a developer, right?
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Not producing anything then. The semantics are kind of unimportant in this case as they're being discussed as a developer.
 
stuburns said:
Not producing anything then. The semantics are kind of unimportant in this case as they're being discussed as a developer.
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Actually, when it comes to making revenue, games that get released through them are kinda important.
 
EmCeeGramr said:
You guys who talk about 3D Realms not releasing anything "in 13/15 years" do know what they also released games as a publisher, not just a developer, right?
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The last big seller? Prey I think.

They churned out a load of Duke games after DN:3D but thats not really enough money to keep funding DNF.
 
EmCeeGramr said:
Actually, when it comes to making revenue, games that get released through them are kinda important.
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Not really. How much money they make is kind of irrelevant as far as I can tell. They either have enough to develop the game, or they don't.

If this is true, they have closed the studio and cancelled DNF, and if they were telling the truth a few months ago, that they are just bug checking. Then they're closing with a virtually complete game which they've been developing for 13 years, rather than releasing it.

It's not a question of money. Even if they've just ran out, they could easily get the cash to fix the bugs and get it out.
 
Raide said:
The last big seller? Prey I think.

They churned out a load of Duke games after DN:3D but thats not really enough money to keep funding DNF.
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Well that's rather apparent, I'd say. :lol

I'm just saying that it's silly that some people think 3DR hasn't made a single cent or been involved with a single game since Duke3D.
 
stuburns said:
If this is true, they have closed the studio and cancelled DNF, and if they were telling the truth a few months ago, that they are just bug checking. Then they're closing with a virtually complete game which they've been developing for 13 years, rather than releasing it.

It's not a question of money. Even if they've just ran out, they could easily get the cash to fix the bugs and get it out.
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:lol


Do you know how many "finished" games never get released because of money? It happens a lot.


Someone confirmed as a reliable source just posted on Shacknews:

I can confirm that there was far more completed than what this video implies.

The guy obviously stripped away details in some of the video to highlight the motion and animations.

I've played a good bit of the game, my bro worked there. That scene with the big alien in the football field? That's the first level, it's Duke playing an arcade version of Duke 3D inside his huge Duke mansion. This was last summer and I saw four different levels and environments that were fully playable (some just needed some polish).

They basically started making the game again from scratch (as they've done a few times) about a year and a half ago.

They had a hard cut-off date for development (11/2009) and a ship date (4/2010). They were stupid close to actually finishing this thing.

Was it going to be worth 12 years wait? Of course not. But it looked like a solid offering from a studio that had spent 2.5 years working on a title.
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EmCeeGramr said:
:lol


Do you know how many "finished" games never get released because of money? It happens a lot.
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Name one.

One with a publisher already signed on to the project.

Lots don't get released, but I can't think of a situation anything like this happening before.
 
B_Rik_Schitthaus said:
But it more then likey is there shutting down cus' of money.
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I have difficulty believing that too. I mean they did turn down a $30 million paycheck from Take 2. I don't see them doing that if they didn't have the cash to continue funding this project.


In any case, we will know in less than a month. I am not accepting any explanation until after E3.


For now I will stand by my previous post.
 
The Rumor is:

They are out of money so they went to Take 2 to request 5 million so they could finish the game. Take 2 offered them 30 million but not to finish the game, they wanted to buy the whole Duke IP. aApparently they declined that...
 
stuburns said:
What do you mean?
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3DR went to T2, asking for 5 million to finish the game. T2 essentially told them to go fuck themselves and "offered" 3DR to buy the publishing rights back for 30 million -- which 3DR couldn't do.
 
Sloane said:
3DR went to T2, asking for 5 million to finish the game. T2 essentially told them to go fuck themselves and "offered" 3DR to buy the publishing rights back for 30 million -- which 3DR couldn't do.
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Wrong. That would be a humorous interpretation of the story though.
 
Okay, I'm thinking PnCIa has it correct, that being the case. If George wasn't lying in his last update, and that 'source' is correct about the final submission date, they wanted $5m for 7 months of bug crushing? Of course they were told to fuck off.
 
Clockwork said:
Wrong.
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Is it?

Think about it for a second. You're the CEO of T2. Can you trust 3D Realms to really finish the game this time? Of course you can't, you've heard it all before, they've been working 12 years on this damn thing. So their thinking is: If anyone else (= any other publisher) is willing to sink money in it, fine with us. But you pay us 30 million first.

The rumor is wrong. Why would T2 want to spend 30 million on the IP? The last "real" game of the series was released in 1996 on the PC, most of today's gamers have probably never played it. You've had financial difficulties in the past, you can't trust 3DR to finish it, so you might have to find a new developer, spend another 10-15 million, get even more bad press... and you won't see the game released before 2011.

Is that worth 30 million to you?
 
Sloane said:
Is it?

Think about it for a second. You're the CEO of T2. Can you trust 3D Realms to really finish the game this time? Of course you can't, you've heard it all before, they've been working 12 years on this damn thing. So their thinking is: If anyone else (= any other publisher) is willing to sink money in it, fine with us. But you pay us 30 million first.

The rumor is wrong. Why would T2 want to spend 30 million on the IP? The last "real" game of the series was released in 1996 on the PC, most of today's gamers have probably never played it. You've had financial difficulties in the past, you can't trust 3DR to finish it, so you might have to find a new developer, spend another 10-15 million, get even more bad press... and you won't see the game released before 2011.

Is that worth 30 million to you?
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The Duke Nukem IP is selling well today and the gamers who grow up with it is waiting for a sequel eagerly. Don't be a dumbass.
Just look at the fucking press this game have had for 12 years, tons of followers aswell. The game was hyped as hell, even it if sucked it would do decent numbers.
 
rezuth said:
The Duke Nukem IP is selling well today and the gamers who grow up with it is waiting for a sequel eagerly. Don't be a dumbass.
Just look at the fucking press this game have had for 12 years, tons of followers aswell. The game was hyped as hell, even it if sucked it would do decent numbers.
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Anecdotal evidence for the win!! YAY
 
There is no way they'd want $30 for the publishing rights. They haven't funded development, and they haven't spent a penny on marketing. They've done nothing. $30 is obscene.

I think you're wrong.
 
Ponn01 said:
Anecdotal evidence for the win!! YAY
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Duke Nukem 3d has a robust Thursday and Friday, bringing it's cume to just below 40,000 in 3 days. It's the first game to officially beat out Castle Crashers, which sold 19,000 units on the week.
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It has sold well on XBLA and that game is from freakin 1996. What more do you ask for?

stuburns said:
There is no way they'd want $30 for the publishing rights. They haven't funded development, and they haven't spent a penny on marketing. They've done nothing. $30 is obscene.

I think you're wrong.
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No one is talking about 30 million for publishing rights, they are talking about buying the whole IP.
 
Sinatar said:
There is NO WAY a company that hasn't released a game in 13 years could go out of business. It's GOTTA be a hoax.

Listen to yourselves, get a fucking grip.
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Uh . . . listen to yourself. :lol How do you expect a company to go 13 years without releasing a product?
 
stuburns said:
They turned down $30m, if that rumor is correct, easily enough to finish the project.

Think of that. They would rather go out of business than complete the project. Does that seem logical to you?

They could easily get a publisher to pay for development.
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Dude, you really need to learn the facts before you start spouting as if you know anything. They have a publisher. The publisher paid for that right. They can't just walk away and go to some other publisher.
 
stuburns said:
There is no way they'd want $30 for the publishing rights. They haven't funded development, and they haven't spent a penny on marketing. They've done nothing. $30 is obscene.
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They've had it with 3D Realms and their attitude. They didn't believe in DNF anymore, they probably stopped years ago. But they obviously didn't want to give it away for free, so they told 3DR to somehow come up with 30 million. 3DR might or might not have talked to other publisher after that but in the end it just didn't work out.

That's what I've been hearing and what seems to be the most logical explanation to me. I can't imagine T2 paying 30 million plus for such a franchise, especially considering its own financial situation and the state of the economy.
 
speculawyer said:
Dude, you really need to learn the facts before you start spouting as if you know anything. They have a publisher. The publisher paid for that right. They can't just walk away and go to some other publisher.
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Maybe I had to make my post clearer, but I understand that.
What I meant was, if TakeTwo had walked away from the project, so therefore the rights would be up for the taking again.

If anyone needs to be careful what he posts, it's you. That post before was moronic.
 
Sloane said:
3DR went to T2, asking for 5 million to finish the game. T2 essentially told them to go fuck themselves and "offered" 3DR to buy the publishing rights back for 30 million -- which 3DR couldn't do.
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This doesn't even make sense what so ever . . . T2 offered to buy publishing right they already own? facepalm indeed.

No. T2 offered them $30M for them to complete the game AND sell the IP rights of Duke Nukem to T2. 3DR did not want to sell the IP, so they said no.

As far as I can tell, this now appears to be a stand off as follows:

1) 3DR can't finish the game since they have no money.
2) 3DR can't get money from anyone else since T2 owns the publishing rights.
3) T2 cannot publish a Duke Nukem game since they don't own the IP.

All of that seems to be pretty solid info. There are some more details but they are from shaky sources such as random blog posts.
 
speculawyer said:
No. T2 offered them $30M for them to complete the game AND sell the IP rights of Duke Nukem to T2. 3DR did not want to sell the IP, so they said no.
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This was my understanding the deal we heard.

3DR are stupid not to sell the IP. Who lets a company and a 13 year long project die because they won't give up an IP?
 
stuburns said:
Maybe I had to make my post clearer, but I understand that.
What I meant was, if TakeTwo had walked away from the project, so therefore the rights would be up for the taking again.

If anyone needs to be careful what he posts, it's you. That post before was moronic.
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:lol

So you buy a car . . . the car dealership doesn't deliver the car . . . so the car dealer is then free to sell the car to someone else.

Does that make sense to you? That seems to be what you are saying.

You seem to be in some delusion that TTWO still had monetary obligations that they have not fulfilled. As far as I know, they do not. (Really . . . do you think any sane publisher would still be paying money 12 year later?)
 
speculawyer said:
:lol

So you buy a car . . . the car dealership doesn't deliver the car . . . so the car dealer is then free to sell the car to someone else.

Does that make sense to you? That seems to be what you are saying.

You seem to be in some delusion that TTWO still had monetary obligations that they have not fulfilled. As far as I know, they do not. (Really . . . do you think any sane publisher would still be paying money 12 year later?)
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What? I didn't say that at all.

I said IF TakeTwo have walked away from the deal, 3DR could shop it around. That is all. I know they weren't funding the project.
 
stuburns said:
I said IF TakeTwo have walked away from the deal, 3DR could shop it around. That is all. I know they weren't funding the project.
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As best as I understand it, they made all their payments but never got a product. I believe the deal was a profit sharing type arrangement so, 3DR felt that things would work out better for themselves if they self-funded the project for a while longer to make sure it was really good . . and that is what they did . . . . until they ran out of money. And T2 doesn't want to put anymore money into the project (quite understandable) unless they get something solid like ownership of the IP.
 
speculawyer said:
As best as I understand it, they made all their payments but never got a product. I believe the deal was a profit sharing type arrangement so, 3DR felt that things would work out better for themselves if they self-funded the project for a while longer to make sure it was really good . . and that is what they did . . . . until they ran out of money. And T2 doesn't want to put anymore money into the project (quite understandable) unless they get something solid like ownership of the IP.
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So the situation is, TakeTwo own the publishing rights to DNF. So, they are the only company who can release the game.

And 3DR can't just change the name and get out the deal of course, so whatever the next big Duke Nukem game is, it's theirs to publish.

If they can't finish the project, they can't put it out so they have to close the studio and scrap the game.

This is why I think this is all a joke. Because I can't believe anyone wouldn't suck it up, take the lose of the IP and finish the project.

They can wait around and hope the DS/PSP games do well enough to fund finishing it maybe. Though that's unlikely.

It's too stupid to be true.
 
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