Duke Nukem Forever in Our Hearts

The n00b · Post by **The n00b** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:31 am

Over a decade of Duke Nukem Forever development has ceased as studio 3d Realms closes its doors.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6209271.ht ... es;title;1

I was planning on cheering on my grand kids as they played this title but that will never happen.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:44 am

Good riddance. The studio, not the franchise.

ZOM · Post by **ZOM** » Thu May 07, 2009 4:00 am

Finally.

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Thu May 07, 2009 4:43 am

That sucks, but I guess that's what happens when you don't make any games for what... 13 years?

UnscathedFlyingObject · Thu May 07, 2009 5:11 am

I feel bad for the people but actually releaseing Duke Nukem Forevah would have destroyed its mysticism.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Thu May 07, 2009 12:32 pm

How come it ever got this big? DN3D had some nice bits (wicked humor and strippers), but it was not really an awesome game.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu May 07, 2009 1:33 pm

Stormwatch wrote:DN3D had some nice bits (wicked humor and strippers), but it was not really an awesome game.

Are you crippled in the brain or somethin'

Anyway, funny that Joe Siegler himself apparently didn't know in advance that the dozen-year-long accounting party was over.

There's also some fun about how many companies are named Apogee. There's Apogee Entertainment and Apogee Enterprises, and apparently 3D Realms' leaders were part of something else (Action something).

Hilariously this comes just two days after Apogee's 17th year of Wolfenstein 3D. That's right; they've been developing Duke Nukem Forever twice as long as Wolf 3D had been out when they started.

Also hilariously they just released a bunch more of their old (1990 and earlier) games as freeware and re-released some with source code (!).

Finally, hilariously, their site isn't responding; probably flooded with people hearing the news.

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Thu May 07, 2009 1:58 pm

Acid King wrote:That sucks, but I guess that's what happens when you don't make any games for what... 13 years?

didn't they make prey? or was that someone else?

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:47 pm

No, they just published it; 3D Realms' last internally developed title was Shadow Warrior, back in 97.

Necronopticous · Post by **Necronopticous** » Thu May 07, 2009 3:05 pm

I'm lovin' it.

mortified_penguin · Post by **mortified_penguin** » Thu May 07, 2009 3:10 pm

I know 3D Realms is more of a novelty then anything by now, but Duke Nukem and Shadow Warrior are two of my fondest childhood memories. Sad to seem 'em go.

LuckyDay · Post by **LuckyDay** » Thu May 07, 2009 3:52 pm

Specineff wrote:Good riddance. The studio, not the franchise.

I'm going to say good riddance on both. Duke Nukem was fun, but it's highly overrated and everything that it did well was passed on an improved in future titles.

Apogee wasn't affected though, so I can still hold out and hope for a next-gen Commander Keen....

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Thu May 07, 2009 4:02 pm

Business is business! you cant sit around making a product for years and years without releasing anyhting to be bought and expect to survive. Its there own fault.

antron · Post by **antron** » Thu May 07, 2009 4:09 pm

release the code ever!

worstplayer · Post by **worstplayer** » Thu May 07, 2009 5:21 pm

antron wrote:release the code ever!

int main(){
//TODO: Duke Nukem Forever
return 0
}

Gungriffon Geona · Post by **Gungriffon Geona** » Thu May 07, 2009 7:19 pm

until there's an announcement from George himself about it I won't hold any real opinion about it JUST YET.
Though, if this WERE a stunt I'd probably use it as an excuse to not pay for DNF if it were released. This is just plain evil if they were fucking with folks just to get press.
Following the 3DR forums led to finding out some seriously cool shit about what people have done with Duke3D since it's inception, and by this point it's ALMOST as though it were a modern game. That's fucking dedication there! Here's hoping if everything proves true all of that doesn't decide to splinter and die.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu May 07, 2009 7:36 pm

Gungriffon Geona wrote:This is just plain evil if they were fucking with folks just to get press.

More evil than frittering away a dozen years, a honored franchise, and lots of investor money?

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Thu May 07, 2009 7:38 pm

LuckyDay wrote:
Specineff wrote:Good riddance. The studio, not the franchise.
I'm going to say good riddance on both. Duke Nukem was fun, but it's highly overrated

Considering today's standards...yes, but at the time it was the shit for real!

and everything that it did well was passed on an improved in future titles.

Sure they copied and improved.
Doesn't degrade the original's originality though!

maybe it's for the best, DOOM 3 killed the franchise for me as well...

Grinning Cat · Post by **Grinning Cat** » Thu May 07, 2009 7:42 pm

It's for the best. All 'Forever' had left was its mythical status....I mean, come on - the game's been in development for so long, it was probably still running off the Wolfenstein 3D engine!

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Thu May 07, 2009 9:17 pm

jpj wrote: didn't they make prey? or was that someone else?

The last few games that have carried the 3d Realms logo have been made by other people. Max Payne and Max Payne 2 were developed by Remedy and Prey was done by Human Head

Ruldra · Post by **Ruldra** » Thu May 07, 2009 9:39 pm

LuckyDay · Post by **LuckyDay** » Thu May 07, 2009 9:58 pm

Super Laydock wrote:
LuckyDay wrote:
Specineff wrote:Good riddance. The studio, not the franchise.
I'm going to say good riddance on both. Duke Nukem was fun, but it's highly overrated
Considering today's standards...yes, but at the time it was the shit for real!

and everything that it did well was passed on an improved in future titles.
Sure they copied and improved.
Doesn't degrade the original's originality though!

maybe it's for the best, DOOM 3 killed the franchise for me as well...

meh. I played Duke Nukem 3D and I enjoyed it. But I think people remember it being a lot more innovative than it really was.

It had mouse-look, nice graphics, fun gameplay, some humor, etc. But aside from putting some strippers that I could kill in the game it didn't do anything other games at the time didn't do.

Personally I liked Hexen, Quake II, Dark Forces and (a little later)Thief all better. And I thought those were all better made both gameplay wise and technically.

I was never extremely excited for the series to come back, but that's just my opinion.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu May 07, 2009 10:04 pm

Ruldra wrote:

I'm starting to think John Locke is going to be trouble.

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Thu May 07, 2009 10:11 pm

Acid King wrote:
jpj wrote: didn't they make prey? or was that someone else?
The last few games that have carried the 3d Realms logo have been made by other people. Max Payne and Max Payne 2 were developed by Remedy and Prey was done by Human Head

cheers for the clarification

i was kinda reading into the thread like they hadn't actually done anything to make any money for so long, and that it was their own fault; but if they've been making money from publishing this is actually a bit of a shame then

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu May 07, 2009 10:26 pm

Acid King wrote:
jpj wrote: didn't they make prey? or was that someone else?
The last few games that have carried the 3d Realms logo have been made by other people. Max Payne and Max Payne 2 were developed by Remedy and Prey was done by Human Head

I'm told that Remedy got a possibly not insignificant amount of help from Rockstar, through both iterations. I wouldn't know one way or the other, of course, and it does seem to be a controversial question.

Can't wait (well, actually, I can, but anyway) for Alan Wake, and maybe Rockstar is working on something good that's not got GTA in the title (aka Max Payne 3).

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Thu May 07, 2009 11:00 pm

Ed Oscuro wrote: I'm told that Remedy got a possibly not insignificant amount of help from Rockstar, through both iterations. I wouldn't know one way or the other, of course, and it does seem to be a controversial question.

Can't wait (well, actually, I can, but anyway) for Alan Wake, and maybe Rockstar is working on something good that's not got GTA in the title (aka Max Payne 3).

How much money could they have made off of those 3 games, though? I mean, publishing 3 games over the course of 12 years, all the while having a drain like Duke Nukem Forever in the background, can't possibly be a profitable business model.

I'm kinda worried about Max Payne 3 since Remedy isn't doing it. I hope Rockstar doesn't fuck it up. Max Payne 1 and 2 are two of my all time faves.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu May 07, 2009 11:50 pm

3D Realms always claimed they had a sizable warchest after Duke 3D and their earlier hits, but I think after a point they were getting working capital in part from their publishers. It's impossible to say. Whatever the case, it's not a terribly big surprise this day came.

It'll be fun to read the recriminations and blame-sharing for years to come.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Fri May 08, 2009 1:07 am

My guess is that they were trying to attract an investor to fund the game all this time, based on the popularity of the franchise (Remember that trailer made a few months ago?), without wanting to admit that they didn't have money to back it up themselves.

Not even a single demo released in over ten years makes me think they hadn't even started a single line of code for it. At all.

croikle · Post by **croikle** » Fri May 08, 2009 2:40 am

Grinning Cat wrote:probably still running off the Wolfenstein 3D engine!

I heard a while ago that they had changed engines several times, forcing a remake of many graphics assets.

BryanM · Post by **BryanM** » Fri May 08, 2009 5:13 am

I don't have many things left to believe in, so I suppose I'll still continue to believe in the duke.

... and even if that falls through, there's always Serious Sam 4..