3D Realms shuts down

Ferg

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58519

very reliable source with inside knowledge of Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms today told Shacknews that the company has been completely shut down.

The closure came about as a result of funding issues, our source explained, with the shut down said to affect both 3D Realms and the recently resurrected Apogee name.

Phone calls and e-mails to various 3D Realms veterans have thus far gone unanswered, with publishing partner Take-Two likewise unavailable for comment.

3D Realms was founded in 1987 by Scott Miller and George Broussard. The company had infamously been working on Duke Nukem Forever over the past 13 years.

Lee3dee

another Dallas company falls Hope everyone who works there will find work.

HellMark

Crazy considering I heard they hit a big milestone recently. Best of luck for those affected.

Paul Pepera

Fuck.

foreverendering

Sad

jocose

So it really is forever?

EmAr

If it's true, I wish good luck to everyone affected. I'll wait until there's an official announcement though.

rooster

nooooooooooooo

Unleashed

still hope its not true

retleks

Fuck it.

pliang

Hmmm...shitty

I_luv_Pixels

DAMNNNNNN!!!! why is dallas sucking so bad!!!!

konstruct

UBER NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

ericdigital

I was actually looking forward to seeing one more duke nukem from them. Bummer.

mikezoo

I cant believe it!, I don't wanna believe it!

And considering some of the new videos poping up for duke nukem forever, this is absolutely crazy. I wounder if another studio might pick it up or if its never going to come out.:(

Spark

Talked to a few already about helping out, hope the best for all those affected, and that they land on there feet. Sad state for the Dallas area, and hope this trend stops soon.

Spark

JesterBox

It's time to kick ass, and chew bubble gum, and I'm all out of gum... forever *sniff*

PolyHertz

Honestly I expected them to go under a looong time ago. I mean other then Prey and Max Payne what have they released in the past decade other then Duke cash ins? As for DNF, I thought this was sort of an interesting read (even if it is somewhat inaccurate): http://duke.a-13.net/

Despite this am sorry to hear that more people will be losing their jobs. Wish anyone affected the best of luck getting back on their feet, especially considering how hard that area has been hit by the times.

Kimono

If only it were April 1st

SHEPEIRO

damn damn damn

JasonLavoie

Crap... this is something I didn't want to hear

I wish the talented team the best, and to land on their feet quickly.

Emil Mujanovic

That's a bit of a shame really, especially being a huge fan of Duke Nukem. I do hope all the staff land on their feet and find other work fairly quickly.

Joshua Stubbles

...another one bites the dust

Duke Nukem forNEVER...

Steve Schulze

Funding issues eh. One wonders how you fund a project for 13 years in the first place.

there are some updates on the Shacknews page:

Update 2: Duke Nukem Forever publisher Take-Two has confirmed to Shacknews that it was not funding development of the 3D Realms project.

"We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis in a prepared statement.

"In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever," he added.

Update: Apogee Software and Deep Silver have issued a statement to Shacknews, confirming that the situation at 3D Realms has not affected the development of Frontline Games' upcoming handheld Duke Nukem Trilogy.

"Deep Silver and Apogee Software are not affected by the situation at 3D Realms," a representative for the companies told us. "Development on the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned."

Anyway, my condolences to anyone affected by this.

notman

Damn it's depressing seeing companies falling so often these days.
Things are getting scary at my own employer, and seeing things like this make me even more worried. Not that we are in the gaming industry, but still just more signs that the economy isn't stabilizing yet (There are rumors of layoffs at my company again tomorrow )

PeterK

I'm sorry to hear this, I was really hoping they'd finish the game and it would be a smash success. Good luck to the folks there, I hope you find a new place soon.

AstroZombie

Sucks that some folks are out of work. Best of luck to those affected.

skankerzero

for every studio that falls, we get new ones.

Out with the old in with the new I suppose.

I just hope the talented can get work so they can actually work on a project that will be released.

cman2k

really sad...despite all the criticisms I was really hoping they would pull this off.

Wahlgren

Got this link from a workmate. I find this a bit over the top tbh but who knows :P

http://gamingisstupid.com/2009/05/06/the-chair-story-revival/

mikezoo

wow. that's a pretty intense tale. Who knows how much is true. Good read!

Steve Schulze

I don't think that's plausible. Apart from everything else, DNF was being developed on a mangled Doom 3 engine, wasn't it? It certainly was at one point.

Good story though.

JohnnyRaptor

fuck i hope this is a stunt right before announcing the completion of duke!
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck its not!! aaah my dreams! my dreams! theyr shattered!

seforin

aster than I can even remember (literally… I don’t remember) I was knocked out of my chair by I *think* of all people Tim Sweeney (it was a wooden kitchen chair) and was pinned on the ground by Mike Wilson and Cliffy B (he’s so much stronger than I ever expected). George walks over to my chair and fucking stomps the shit out of it until the legs are broken off. He casually picks up one of the legs that had split into a shit your pants style point and starts tossing it up and down. Scott and Mark Rein alternate on and off saying that I apparently wasn’t aware how *real* business is done and that if I didn’t want to find out why those two companies had maintained such a strong position in the industry dating back to the shareware days (when it seems people didn’t ask nearly as many questions about why developers appeared, made a game, and then disappeared without a trace)… I had better reconsider my answer.

I do remember the next part very very well though… I will never forget it and I have to admit that I have dreams about it pretty frequently.

Cliffy and Mike pulled me up and shoved my face about 6 inches from the point of the chair leg. I was drenched in sweat (the trailers didn’t have decent AC so it was already hot as hell in there)… and if they had let go of me I would not have been able to stand on my own.

George looked me in the eyes and asked me one more time what I was going to do… so at that point I did what anyone would do…



=====================================


Are you kidding me?


seriously, mofia style shit?


Cliffy B (rather skinny guy from photos ive seen?)

Held his face to spiked wood?

What the hell?

Do I need to bulk up more just incase I ever get in these kinda of situation in a board meeting?

should I join a fight club before I join a new game studio


jesus , anyone else here would have taken there chances and fight those 3 guys?

Andreas

yeah, Cliffy B is this industry's biggest tool, but also a pussy. Anyone know why those images are down? Apparently there is a really funny one with him in this obnoxious suit.

That was indeed a dramatic tail; lots of needless conspiracy. I can see Michael Moore making a movie out of this someday

conte

sad.

AstroZombie

Notorious P.I.G wrote: »

Got this link from a workmate. I find this a bit over the top tbh but who knows :P

http://gamingisstupid.com/2009/05/06/the-chair-story-revival/

hahhaha. Charlie had me going until the end. I was actually ready to believe this shit. It's a joke guys.

Daaark

Seems like DNF was just alchemy. Someone kept paying for it, and occasionally, they'd throw up a demo to show 'progress'. You know, the Open Source model. Just like some university has been funding RMS's development of HURD for 20 something years.

TomDunne

It sucks about the jobs being lost, but part of me is glad the game will never come out. At this point, I'd rather have the legend of the industry's most famous vaporware live on than play what would likely be a solid but less-than-revolutionary shooter.

ArtsyFartsy

Awww man. Duke Nukem 3D and Max Payne 1 are the reasons I got into this business in the first place. .....mmmm Prey not so much, but it was still a good game.

In the end though, I think we all could see this coming. Heck I didn't even know they were still in business. You can't make 1 game every 10 years and hope to be successful as a business.

I always dreamed that Duke Nukem would become a community project and people would get together and contribute assets to it. Kinda like an open ended mod.

Quokimbo

ArtsyFartsy wrote: »

I always dreamed that Duke Nukem would become a community project and people would get together and contribute assets to it. Kinda like an open ended mod.

Can it not? I would contribute!

Daaark

Quokimbo wrote: »

Can it not? I would contribute!

The stinky tree whirl gun? Model that. :poly142:

Darkwing Duke wrote:

Suck gas evildoer!

rawkstar

its all just a house of cards...

Lee3dee

Notorious P.I.G wrote: »

Got this link from a workmate. I find this a bit over the top tbh but who knows :P

http://gamingisstupid.com/2009/05/06/the-chair-story-revival/

hahah! Charlie's joke story, he released this a while back on the somethingawful forums, i see its back up again

t4paN

Ah shit, that's sad news. I was always hoping Duke will pull through in the end.

notman

You'd think they could have at least sold off some of their IPs just to say alive... especially a game like Duke Nukem, or Max Payne with the movie rights

TheMadArtist

I think it interesting that despite all the criticism leveled at 3D Realms over the years and the joke that Duke Nukem Forever had become, most people in the gaming community were really pulling for them to finish it, and something like this proves it with a lot of the comments I've been reading since this was announced.

Wahlgren

Lee3dee wrote: »

hahah! Charlie's joke story, he released this a while back on the somethingawful forums, i see its back up again

And here i hoped that cliffy b was some kind of psycho dude.

sir-knight

13 years of development... if the game were done tomorrow and released... just how many copies of it would they need to sell to break even on the development costs? I think this game was dead after the first failure.

whats_true

The atomic bomb was made faster then this game. Really, did anybody not see this coming?

Rick Stirling

If anyone from 3DR is looking for work, R* has positions at most studios.