Duke Nukem Forever

By Rob Fahey Published 7 May, 2009

End of an error.

Where were you in April 1997? It's a little over 12 years ago. Perhaps you were still at university, or just starting your first job. Some of you won't remember at all.

Me, I fall somewhere in the middle. I was 16 in the spring of 1997, and I had finally convinced a magazine editor to let me write a couple of pages about videogames every month. Somewhere in my parents' attic, there's a dog-eared copy of that magazine turning yellow and crinkling around the edges. In it is the first page of copy I ever got paid for - including breathless reporting of two huge new PC games which had been announced almost back-to-back in the previous fortnight. Their names were Daikatana, and Duke Nukem Forever.

We all know about how Daikatana went off the rails. Most of us probably remember designer John Romero promising to make us into his bitch, but when the vastly over-schedule and over-budget game finally turned up in May 2000, it did so with a submissive whimper rather than a throaty, dominant growl. Nobody became Romero's bitch, with the possible exception of Eidos, who funded the whole mess.

Media and gamers alike made Daikatana into the butt of their jokes for months - but even as we rolled our eyes at Romero's folly, we were all casting nervous glances back at Duke Nukem Forever. Born from the same background in Texas' fertile FPS development scene, Duke Nukem appeared to share some of Daikatana's problems. A planned launch in mid-1998 had been greeted not with a huge splash at retail, but rather with a slightly understated announcement that the game, originally based on the Quake 2 technology, would now switch to the Unreal Engine.

'Duke Nukem Forever' Screenshot 1

Duke Nukem Forever in 2001.

OK, fair enough. We'd seen the Unreal technology at work, and my god, it was beautiful. Unreal sold 3D cards by the bucketload as gamers rushed to experience the world Epic had crafted. If the guys at 3D Realms had had the same shivers run down their spine when they walked out of the crashed spacecraft for the first time, or when the ominous Sunspire presented itself to be scaled, then who could blame them for wanting some of that magic in Duke Nukem Forever? Besides, Duke Nukem 3D was one of the most entertaining games of its generation - who were we to question the creative decisions of the guys who made that?

1999 arrived. When 1999 departed, the only things which 3D Realms had to show for it were a brief announcement about moving to another new engine (an updated version of the Unreal Engine, so not a big deal, we assumed) and a Christmas card featuring the Duke and strongly hinting that we'd see the game in 2000. The delays were amusing, but nobody was actually worried about the game - not least because the endless shenanigans at Ion Storm proved far more entertaining.

Daikatana turned up, as mentioned, in May 2000. Once we all stopped rubbernecking, however, all eyes turned back to Duke Nukem Forever. Announced ten days after Daikatana in 1997 and running similarly behind schedule, DNF felt like a brother in arms - so surely it, too, would finally make it onto retailers' shelves soon.

'Duke Nukem Forever' Screenshot 2

The 2001 E3 trailer is the single longest burst of DNF footage seen by the press and public.

That was nine years ago. A year later, in the summer of 2001, we finally got a gameplay trailer - around two minutes of footage, released in celebration of Duke Nukem's tenth anniversary at E3. By today's standards, the video looks positively archaic, and even then - with games like Half-Life having raised the bar significantly for first-person shooters - it didn't look like a huge leap forward. Still, we reasoned, Duke Nukem 3D wasn't the technological leap forward that something like Quake represented, but it was still fantastic. Keep the faith.

That was the last time that any significant footage from Duke Nukem Forever would ever be released to the public. It was eight years ago. To date, it's the only official gameplay footage we've actually seen.

3D Realms has never been particularly keen on talking about Duke Nukem Forever. Unlike other studios of the era, which customarily released screenshots and videos in a steady flow throughout the latter stages of the dev process, bosses George Broussard and Scott Miller kept a lid on Duke's progress. Up to E3 2001, updates were sparse, but at least they were regular, and suggested significant ongoing work. After that E3, however, 3D Realms slowly but surely went dark.

The last serious bit of information came out of the studio in 2002, and concerned another, final, change in engine technology. Dropping almost every component of the Unreal engine, 3D Realms claimed to have rewritten 95 per cent of the code, crafting what was essentially a brand new engine from scratch. Then we heard nothing for nearly five years.

Every now and then, either Miller or Broussard would pop up to give an entirely content-free interview, or answer questions on a forum, which always seemed to suggest that the game was in the latter stages of development and just needed a quick polish before it would be ready to launch. So starved of information were we that even news about licensing a new physics engine seemed exciting, if only because it proved that the corpse still had a pulse.

Then, suddenly, in December 2007, a trailer! Heavens above, a trailer, an actual trailer!

Except... Well. It was actually just a long circling shot of an oddly proportioned Duke (seriously - he had a huge body and a tiny, tiny head) pumping some iron, with a couple of split-second clips of famous monsters from the series interspersed. They looked pretty decent, but unlike the 2001 E3 trailer, it's clear this wasn't gameplay. It's a teaser, not a trailer, and teasers generally don't imply the game is on the home stretch.

'Duke Nukem Forever' Screenshot 3

The 2007 Duke looks a bit Scandinavian if you ask me.

The past year and a half, since that teaser appeared, has gone roughly the same as the previous five years. We've had a tiny bit of camcorder footage on Jason Hall's online TV show, which showed a small chunk of a level and a handful of enemies and weapons - vastly more up to date than the 2001 footage, but literally only a few seconds long and showing little of how the game actually works. Various statements, mostly from Broussard, have continued to point at an imminent release - just like they have since 2002. There were a couple of screenshots hidden in the Xbox Live Arcade version of DN3D. Little seems to have changed at 3D Realms.

Until today. 12 years after the official announcement, perhaps as many as 14 years after Duke Nukem Forever commenced development, today's news is that 3D Realms is shutting its doors. As I write this, it's unconfirmed - but the silence from the company's usually vocal bosses is deafening.

So what could have killed 3D Realms? The studio ran on two commodities - money and patience. It could have run out of either of those things. However, despite online scuttlebutt, the fact is that long-suffering publisher Take Two, which ended up with the rights to Duke Nukem after taking over Gathering of Developers in 2001, couldn't have killed the project. DNF has always been directly funded from within 3D Realms, and publisher input seems to have been minimal, perhaps even non-existent - Take Two's job would simply be to take the finished game and put it on shelves. If 3D Realms has gone down, and DNF with it, then it's a decision which has been taken by Broussard and Miller, not by Take Two.

'Duke Nukem Forever' Screenshot 4

Well, it wouldn't be a Duke feature without a stripper shot. Goodbye girls. Don't get captured.

Even after all the jokes - Duke Nukem Forever and Ever and Ever and Ever, Did Not Finish, and a million other examples (my favourite is this huge list of things which have happened since DNF was announced), I never quite believed that Duke Nukem Forever simply wouldn't appear. Yet, even for those of us who remember Duke Nukem 3D fondly, it's hard to escape the fact that its strippers, dreadful one-liners and oh-so subversive depiction of the police as actual pigs seemed a hell of a lot more entertaining when we were teenagers, although others at Eurogamer would definitely beg to differ.

More importantly, if you're much younger than 25 or so, you probably don't remember Duke Nukem at all. Once, DNF could have sold itself on the strength of the brand - now it would face an uphill struggle to convince a whole new generation that this slightly twee self-parodying action hero is actually worth a second glance.

Of course, there's always the possibility that what 3D Realms has been working on for all these years is actually amazing - a groundbreaking, stunningly conceived and realised game that would kick the FPS up the arse (or rip its head off and you know what). We kept the faith with Duke Nukem Forever for years; for all the jokes and snarky comments in the past decade or so, we'd love a happy ending and a great new game.

Yet somehow, that fairytale ending just doesn't seem to fit with the story so far. Instead, I suspect that this may be my obituary for Duke Nukem Forever - my most-wanted game of 1998.

Picture of Rob.

About Rob Fahey

Read more articles from Rob by visiting the Rob Fahey archive page.

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Comments (100) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Xerx3s #1 3 years ago

    I would have loved to played this. They don't make many of these kind of shooters any more. :(

  • Darren #2 3 years ago

    For a moment there, before I clicked on the link to this story, I thought this was going to be an ***ACTUAL*** preview of the near-finished game. Instead it turned out to be an obituary. Ah well.

  • X201 #3 3 years ago

    Would love to see a remake of Duke 3D in a modern day engine

  • TheTingler #4 3 years ago

    Read this? Could well be true. It gives some answers, like why it took so impossibly long and where the hell 3D Realms got their money from.

    Then again, I'm not sure about that very exciting ending. Surely Game Developer Conferences aren't that thrilling in real life?

  • Cataferal #5 3 years ago

    At the very least they could release an interactive archive of all the builds and assets, similar to MGS2: Document.

    The years of efforton 3D Realms' part has to count for something.

  • Azazel #6 3 years ago

    Being in my mid-twenties I'm just about remember the whole thing from the start reading about it in PCG to (presumably) what is now the finish.

    Jesus it's a long, long time when you think about it like that!

  • pjmaybe #7 3 years ago

    Sad to think that it'll never really appear. As Shinji so rightly said in the artlcle, a whole new generation of gamers won't even know who Duke Nukem is, and even if a new game appeared wrapped around something like the Unreal3 engine, it'd be an impossibly tough sell to all those industry critics and writers just ready and waiting to bare their teeth and sink their fangs into whatever abortionate creation ended up being shat into existence.

    I would've actually liked to have played the 2001 versh just for the sheer garish ugliness of it.

    I always thought "The Return of Matt Hazard" was more than a close tongue in cheek parody of the whole DNF thing. And that's generated about as much excitement as the next swine flu report, so maybe it's better that Duke Nukem Forever becomes Duke Nukem Never

  • pjmaybe #8 3 years ago

    For a bit of added bonus perspective of how long the whole thing has taken, I still had some hair back in '97 :)

  • urban #9 3 years ago

    hurhur. duke nukem came out exactly half of my life time ago..

  • siro #10 3 years ago

    Good riddance.

  • neonxaos #11 3 years ago

    I have no clue what you guys are on about with the 2001 trailer - to me, it looked awesome then, and it still looks awesome now.

    I call BS on this. I bet they'll announce a release date tomorrow, or even release the game tomorrow. That would be just like Broussard.

  • Mooks #12 3 years ago

    I really enjoyed Redneck Rampage about the same time as DN if i remember?

  • Toothball #13 3 years ago

    Weird, I always thought Rob Fahey was older than me.

  • Rens11 #14 3 years ago

    shame was looking forward to this

  • Reihn #15 3 years ago


    : ( : ( : (

    I'll never forget the monsters breaking through that cinema screen. I couldn't believe such technical wizardry was even possible..

    Also, DN3D gave me my first unrestricted access to pictures ofboobs. Beautiful, pixilated boobs . .

  • Tomo #16 3 years ago

    @ Tingler - That was a mental read! Rather hard to swallow though. It's difficult imagining those people acting like the sodding mafia but still, I'm not sure I'd put it past anyone.

  • Strifer #17 3 years ago

    I blame Arsenal Gear.

  • Tyronne #18 3 years ago

    This has got to be the pinacle of game news, the death of a 12 year vapourware game that so many had looked forward to (me included).

    The news has make me chuckle ever since I learnt of it.

    I have no sympathy for them over this,no game should have 12 years spent on it and gawd knows how many man hours spent on it.

    Utter utter farce of the highest order.

  • kingmong #19 3 years ago

    DN3d had the best start to a game ever. If, like me, you hadn't read any documentation & hit start straight away you're just dropped on top of a building & the only exposition is that "those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride"

    still generated a huge laugh when playing the XBLA version

  • brappbrap #20 3 years ago

    @ TheTingler

    Haha, incredible.

  • the_dudefather #21 3 years ago

    Duke nukem forever 2001 trailer...

    The video that made me dream of the world's most awesome game....

    It's a shame that all this hampered Duke from getting a proper sequel, but games like Shadow warrior and Blood filled the gap (in terms of build engine based games with awesome environments to explore)

  • JensonJet #22 3 years ago

    I remember playing the original back in the day, and had always looked forward to the Duke's return. I guess ultimately incompetence must have killed this game off finally. Either that or the developers just spent all their time gaming. Or maybe they actually just got other jobs, never intended to release this, and pulled the biggest hoax in gaming history!

    If managed correctly the Duke Nukem game could've turned into a long running series like Doom or Castle Wolfenstein, possibly even spawning a movie! It could still make a comeback if anyone involved cared enough. But I guess in truth they don't, and as such, why should we care now.

  • IronCladChicken #23 3 years ago

    @JensonJet
    It spawned a movie, called 'They Live' - it was released back in 1988

  • themerlin13 #24 3 years ago

    Would have been better than Halo ;)

  • Ryuken #25 3 years ago

    "By today's standards, the video looks positively archaic, and even then - with games like Half-Life having raised the bar significantly for first-person shooters - it didn't look like a huge leap forward."

    Nah, the E3 2001 DNF trailer is still one of the most exciting promo clips of an FPS ever. Graphically it's ancient (Unreal engine 1 and all that) but in terms of content it showed scenes everyone wanted to play, even now I'd still like to ride a donkey while blowing a squidmutant head off with a shotgun or slide under a truck with a Harley Davidson. The only other trailer at the time that generated as much excitement (back then) was the WarCraft III one, which was pure CGI and didn't even represent something that came close to actual in-game scenes or gameplay.

    "More importantly, if you're much younger than 25 or so, you probably don't remember Duke Nukem at all. Once, DNF could have sold itself on the strength of the brand - now it would face an uphill struggle to convince a whole new generation that this slightly twee self-parodying action hero is actually worth a second glance."

    I think the 25+ years old crowd is a big part of the market. I am not saying DNF would have been a most-wanted game like it could have been many years back but a lot of people are still interested in this. Hopefully some other dev can finish it.

  • Shinji #26 3 years ago

    I think the 25+ years old crowd is a big part of the market.

    It is, of course - but this is where I think DNF falls between two stools. You've got teens who have never heard of it, and a big chunk of older guys who just feel like they've grown out of it. Personally, I've got rose-tinted glasses for Duke, but I'm not sure how much of the rest of the world, outside of the hardcore forums online, would share that view.

  • Syrette #27 3 years ago

    The 2001 trailer wasn't genuine gameplay footage, for what it's worth.

  • earthdog #28 3 years ago

    Actually, I think this may ultimately be good for Duke fans (I count myself as one). My logic being that the brand may move to another software studio and actually be taken forward.

    The risk being they would not be as adept at the sense of humour element that 3DR seem to have got right with D3D.

    I think there is still a market for this type of game and in fact the modern world is perhaps more rich in terms of satirical content.

  • newt #29 3 years ago

    I guess this must be the punishment you get for stealing Bruce Campbell's quotes.

  • Shinji #30 3 years ago

    The 2001 trailer wasn't genuine gameplay footage, for what it's worth.

    I've seen claims that it was all just tiny chunks of levels and models specifically made for the E3 video, and that none of it was actually running in the game. That's never been confirmed or substantiated, so it didn't seem worth digging it up in this article.

    (There are tons of conspiracy theories which circle around DNF - although the one about Tim Sweeney beating people up which is linked earlier in this thread is one of the most amazing ones yet! - but frankly, down that path lies madness, and the most straightforward explanation is still basically that a terribly managed, over-ambitious and uncontrolled project just finally fell off the rails.)

  • Dirtbox #31 3 years ago

    One thing remains; they will forever be remembered as the biggest sack of failure in gaming history.

  • raion #32 3 years ago

    that chair story thetingler linked is most definitely interesting. but the ending can't be right... can it?

  • zisssou #33 3 years ago

    I honestly dont care. Duke had his time back in the day and i lost hope of a game coming out years ago. Move on.

  • bad09 #34 3 years ago

    TBH I gave up caring for this ages ago anyway. Hope was rekindled when the new trailer popped up but I still never expected to actually play it.

    No duke joins the many great games series who will sadly never see new games. Besides is there anyone not bored to death of bloody FPS's now anyway?

  • hiddenranbir #35 3 years ago

    Good riddance.

  • smelly #36 3 years ago

    >Good riddance.

    I hope some twat says that about you if you ever get made unemployed.

    twat

  • Azazel #37 3 years ago

    /Broussard puts on best Jack Nicholson voice:

    "I tried didn't I? At least I did that much!"

  • CapnCloudchaser #38 3 years ago

    25+ plus huh.. I turned 25 this year and I remember playing Duke Nukem on the Saturn. I feel so incredibly old :(

    The legend surrounding DNF has always been incredibly entertaining and I hope it continues on for many more years! At this point it's probably nothing more than a much loved project, if still in development, but what is so wrong with that? Not everything has to become a commercial product. Lots of people design their own games all the time, companies build up their own projects that never see the light of day. We'll probably never see DNF, but I'm always interested to hear about it's development anyway, because game dev stuff is pretty fascinating on it's own merit, regardless of the end product.

    I wouldn't go so far as to calling them a failure. They're just perfectionists ;)

  • byron_hinson #39 3 years ago

    If your company hasn't produced anything in 12 years yet continued to be paid for producing nowt - you'd surely expect to be unemployed at some point.

  • Ryuken #40 3 years ago

    The 2001 trailer wasn't genuine gameplay footage, for what it's worth.

    All the talking bits were scripted for the trailer (but were ready/planned to go in the real game), just like the Worm, but the rest was taken straight out of the game according to Charles Wiederhold (said it on the 3D Realms forum somewhere recently).

    But hey, 3D Realms scrapped that incarnation of the game anyway, we're not going to see that 2001 version anymore and I don't even know if a complete transfer to the Doom³/UE3 engine/whatever mutated hybrid Broussard came up with would have been better...
    Edited by 1 at 07/05/09 @ 18:49

  • 57th_FoX #41 3 years ago

    I have actually just cried a little....

  • toy_brain #42 3 years ago

    Although I don't celebrate the thought of anyone being out of a job, this really is the most fitting end for the whole DNF story.
    The game could never have been 12-years-waitings-worth of good, and now it stands as the most visible reminder of what happens when you dont manage a project, and believe your game is 'too big to fail' (or however you want to put it - I guess that phrase is more for the banking sector than the games industry).

    To everyone who worked on it - best of luck with the future and I hope you all find new jobs soon.
    To 3DRealms as a collective entity - piss off, dont come back, and dont try pulling that shit ever again.

  • Indy #43 3 years ago

    @raion: Guess there might be some truth to that story. I guess he exagerated some things (like the ending, which would make quite a nice scene for a mobstermovie, really) but still it's quite the interesting read. Wonder if anyone is willing to dig deeper into that stuff, even though it's his word against that of the other guys...

  • Salato #44 3 years ago

    I hear 3D Realms handed development of DNF over to God, it'll be ready to play by the time you get to heaven apparently.

  • Sar #45 3 years ago

    I'm stunned and pissed at this news. I only just caught it now.

    Maaaaaaaaaan.

    :/

  • twh104 #46 3 years ago

    Didn't they develop Prey in the meantime?

  • byron_hinson #47 3 years ago

    No someone else developed Prey - they just published it. In other words - nothing in 12 years. Considering the slating some people at Ion Storm got for spending money while producing nothing, they still managed to bring out a game within 3 years or so - 12 years is awful and clearly there was little or no work going on.

  • smelly #48 3 years ago

    >clearly there was little or no work going on.

    *sigh*.. yes.. clearly.. *sigh*

    it's amazing how many gamers think they know how games are made because they've read a few artitcles in edge.

  • ExplodingClown #49 3 years ago

    Bah, Lo Wang would kick Duke's arse anyway.

  • byron_hinson #50 3 years ago

    So you say it takes 12 years to produce that game?

    Rockstar released what - 3 GTA games during that time, huge games. I haven't read any of the articles about 3D Realms etc - but if any company produces nothing in 12 years then you can't be too surprised or saddened to see them die.

  • Kluff #51 3 years ago

    Good riddance.

    Absolutely. I'm so glad this is finally over.

  • Freek #52 3 years ago

    It'd be verry interesting to hear what happend from someone on the inside, a la Flagship.
    There had to be atleast 3 or 4 versions of the game made and any number of weird failures.

    My geuse would be that during development of the game several other franchises and/or big FPS games were released that moved the genre forward in such ways that 3DR was forced to scrap what was made and restart the game on better technology.

  • smelly #53 3 years ago

    My point being you have no idea what went on behind closed doors.

    How long do you think it takes nintendo (for example) to make a mario game? 5 or 6 years? There was surely prototypes, versions which just werent good enough to ship, etc etc.

    Until you know what exactly happened and why, dont just state stuff like "clearly there was little or no work going on".

    I know a LOT of talented people who worked there. People who are now out of jobs... You wouldnt look at any other company which has stopped work - and point at the newly unemployed staff and go "ha - serves you right!" now would you?



    Changing subject.. A part of me thinks this might actually be a publicity stunt...

  • byron_hinson #54 3 years ago

    unemployment isn't funny in any context - but I feel more sorry for people who have produced great things within the past 12 years yet still gone bust and haven't had the luxury of being paid to produce nothing during such a long lifespan.

  • Freek #55 3 years ago

    When ever people joke about DNF or 3D Realms I doubt they actaully want to insult the people working there, but rather make fun of the incridibly insane situation the game and studio was in.

    I mean 14 years of hype and no game to show for it at the end of it all, it's not that hard to see the jokes and ridicule comming.

  • FooAtari #56 3 years ago

    I still believe!

    \o/

  • Lawlost #57 3 years ago

    If any of you really believe this is the end you are wrong. Yes it is the end of 3D Realms developing DNF, but the IP is still alive, that means someone else will pick it up and develop a new Duke Nuke Em game, this has to be good news really. 3D Realms for 12 years have showed how incompetent they are. I think we will see a new Duke Nuke Em game within 2 years.

  • loopy #58 3 years ago

    Well, as interesting as that blog linked earlier in this comments section is, you can all make your own minds up as to it's author's validity:

    http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wie...
    Edited by 1 at 07/05/09 @ 21:54

  • OndrejSc #59 3 years ago

    http://i40.tinypic. com/xduk2b.jpg

  • loopy #60 3 years ago

    @ OndrejSc

    Interesting ;)

  • siro #61 3 years ago

    smelly, get over it. They needed 12 years and didn't manage to get a game out. I know I would lose my job if I needed that. And I also remember their staff writing about their MMORPG addiction.

    Of course, I don't wish anyone to get unemployed, but I'm happy that we'll stop hearing about DNF (which we will also after the game announcement soon).

  • cawley1 #62 3 years ago

    Hmm, April 1997... One month after the N64 was released in Europe, One month before Labour came to power, that's how long ago this was!

    Maybe the Tories will be back in when -if- it does get picked up by another dev and hits the shelves...

  • rarebit #63 3 years ago

    damn shame is all.................

  • Inquisitor #64 3 years ago

    I'm pretty sure they were working on the game throughout but awful management and an increasing feeling of falling behind to new competitors and losing touch with finances and the need to release something meant they were always refining what they just couldn't afford to.

    They probably saw the failure of Daikatana as justification for taking Duke in and creating the be all and end all title they so wanted it to be. If it wasn't good enough to change FPS 'forever' they weren't interested in releasing it. They should have just cut their losses and released a solid to good title when they had the chance, though once development spiralled out of control to the extent I'm sure it did after 2001 they probably never had a coherent game to show ever again.

  • Cyclone #65 3 years ago

    @ byron_hinson

    Actually, haven't Rockstar released about all of the GTA games in that time?

    1,2, 3, Vice City, San Andreas, Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, IV, Advance, Chinatown Wars as well as London 1961, London 1969 and the Lost and the Damned.

    That's 10 games and three expansion packs. If Wiederhold's story about stringing people along all of the time is correct then 3D Realms did deserve to go down. And if it's not, it's a sign of deep incompetence at 3DR.

  • oupe #66 3 years ago

    Screenshot 2:

    EDF! EDF! EDF!

  • ChrisOTR #67 3 years ago

    Exactly as Rob said, I feel that I've grown up too much in the past 12 years to have enjoyed it anyway.

    I had a Duke Nukem mouse mat back in the day though!

    I would love to see what they actually have today though, good OR bad, but we probably never will.

  • Miths #68 3 years ago

    I was snorting coke and amphetamine in '97 (oh, the joys of being 21) - maybe that's why I can't recall the original announcement? :)

  • Silvervein #69 3 years ago

    @FooAtari

    I still believe!

    \o/

    I'm with you :)
    Also...
    Hail to the king, babe!
    (it had to be said)

  • Number1Laing #70 3 years ago

    This goes way way beyond "you don't know how games are made." These guys couldn't pull together a meat and potatoes first person shooter in 12 fucking years. Think of all the amazing and ambitious games that have come out since then. I mean, if I didn't deliver for 12 damn years I wouldn't have a job and I don't think I would deserve one. I hope any talented people who worked at 3D Realms are able to move on to a studio where we can actually see their work.

    Of course, this does NOT include George Broussard, Scott Miller, and anyone else in upper management who let this clusterfuck fester for so long.

  • Waldo #71 3 years ago

    "Read this? Could well be true. It gives some answers, like why it took so impossibly long and where the hell 3D Realms got their money from. "

    The chair story is fake.

  • Ez3kiel. #72 3 years ago

    More importantly, if you're much younger than 25 or so, you probably don't remember Duke Nukem at all.

    I am young but played it when I was 6.

  • Stop-gap #73 3 years ago

    Although I never played much Duke 3D way back when, I still had a... morbid curiosity to see exactly how DNF was going to turn out after all these years. Still, better than Darkfall, I'm sure.

    Does Daikatana hold some sort of record for a game being through the longest development but still making it to market?

  • Verwandlung #74 3 years ago

    lol

  • Fleisch #75 3 years ago

    Firstly, gutted.

    Secondly, anyone else notice that the enemy in the 2001 trailer look suspiciously like Los Ganados from RE4?! Look at 1:35ish i think, just before the blonde woman says "they're everywhere, people are turning into monsters.." Me thinks Capcom are now obligated to finish this sodding game, if they're going to go and copy it anyway!

  • schnide #76 3 years ago

    It's been said already, but given that this has taken SO long and even intermittent moments of my life I'll never get back.. good riddance indeed. I'm glad it's finally died the death it should have a long time ago.

  • JDT_JDT #77 3 years ago

    Question: Is DNF real?

    Really. I've always had this nagging suspicion that DNF is some kind of joke, dreamed up by the computer games media to see how far they can take it.

    Is it one of these things that everyone is in on, but likes to keep secret from those that are not?

    Are the screenshots, etc, all fakes? I have to say that I don't think the computer games media is anywhere near competent enough to keep up a hoax for this long, but there was always this nagging 5% chance in my mind.

    Care to own up?

  • BigE0n #78 3 years ago

    that's a serious amount of feature creep (12 years worth), someone contact the Guinness Book of world records!

  • YourMessageHere #79 3 years ago

    I always love the hypocrisy here when a studio goes bust, whereby half the people go "good riddance you deserved it" and the other half go "STFU unemployment isn't funny". However, when Jack Thompson got disbarred, I didn't hear many people commiserating about his sadly reduced circumstances, just lots of mocking internet laughter. If Keith Vaz got sacked tomorrow for not doing anything for any of his constituency members for 12 years, how many of us would be sticking up for him?

    Obviously everyone knows that sudden unemployment isn't a good thing, but those who are incompetent plainly deserve to be fired, and I'm sure every poster here knows someone who has lost their job in unfair circumstances, and would much rather the likes of 3DRealms got the boot than them. It's also not exactly the end of the world, there are other jobs.

  • kangarootoo #80 3 years ago

    @byron_hinson

    Do we know how big the team was that was working on this? That is crucial to know, at least before we start acting like we know how games are made... right?

    Do you know how big the GTA team is as RockStar for example?

    There was clearly some mismanagement here on a huge scale, which is pretty inexcusable. There was also a lot of wasted work as a result, which is also probably inexcusable. However, if there were about 10 people or less working on this for the last 12 years, I'm not much surprised that not much was achieved given the ambition of the thing.

  • superdelphinus #81 3 years ago

    unemployment is hilarious

  • VMerken #82 3 years ago

    Mmm... never was into the Duke, Doom left much better impressions at the time. Still, twelve years is a long time in video game land - enough time for cash flows to dry up and human nature to become dominant. We'll see what happens further.

  • homerbert #83 3 years ago

    [link url=http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=X3pwMdXRdDY
    ]http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=X3pwMdXRdDY
    [/link]

    How come the article doesn't mention the 1998 trailer? Or did it mention it and I miss it?

    God, I remember reading about it in PC Zone and Gamer, then seeing that video on the demo disk and being so excited.

    Eoin

  • Ergates_Antius #84 3 years ago

    From a list of things that took less time than DNF (On the page linked to in the article):

    "The United States' entire program to put a man on the moon, from Kennedy's challenge to the landing. "

  • Ergates_Antius #85 3 years ago

    "but those who are incompetent plainly deserve to be fired"

    Thing is - the majority of the people who lose their jobs when this type of thing happens aren't incompetent or to blame. This is clearly a case of bad (or non-existant) project management. The coders, artists, designers etc who are now unemployed* probably aren't the ones that caused the problem and probably didn't 'deserve' to be fired.

    *though I wouldn't be surprised though if no-one has really been working on this for years and the company has just been an empty shell.

  • RustyBullet #86 3 years ago

    I am 35 now, i had many hours of fun playing Duke and the various add-ons on the PC. I remember when they first anounced that they were going to be doing DNF, me and a few mates couldent wait for a new Duke game. Every now and then you would get a bit of news regarding the game and each time you thought Fuck Yea bring it on. But now when i first heard 3D Realms was shutting up doors I thought Fuck what about Duke nukem, and my heart sank. This is BAD news and i wish the work force at 3D Realms all the best of luck for the future and whatever it holds for them. Long live Duke Nukem even if its only in my heart.

  • hiddenranbir #87 3 years ago

    I hope some twat says that about you if you ever get made unemployed.

    twat

    If I was as unproductive as this lot after so many years, I wouldn't blame that 'twat' at all. Infact, I'd count my lucky stars at being employed for so long with extremely little to show for it.

    I feel sorry for the investors that sank however much money expecting to make some sort of return.
    Edited by 1 at 09/05/09 @ 10:26

  • Stop-gap #88 3 years ago

    Sadly, anybody who was competent should have got the hell out of there nearly a decade ago if they were planning on keeping their career. Maybe they'll get lucky with a future position somewhere, but the chances are that a prospective employer seeing "3D Realms " on a CV right now isn't going to be too charitable.
    Unemployment is funny when it happens to crazy people who should have never been allowed into the position they get the boot from, especially when they use it as a platform to be twattish far and wide.

  • prettyboytim #89 3 years ago

    [conspiracy theory]
    They actually finished it. Take Two is fabricating disks as we speak and the whole closure of 3D Realms is just a great final bit of obsfucation and marketing to generate hype about the game before release. The game will be unveiled in a couple of weeks to a great fanfare and people will buy it in their hundreds of thousands even if they didn't remember the first one just find out what all the fuss is about...
    [/conspiracy theory]

  • Verwandlung #90 3 years ago

    [link url=http://kotaku.com/524760 8/duke-nukem-forever-gameplay-footage?skyline=true&s=x#c1271 6874
    ]http://ko taku.com/5247608/duke-nukem-for...[/link]


    nothing very special imo

  • BlackTiger #91 3 years ago

    Eah... Great game... R.I.P. Duke... :(

  • BlackTiger #92 3 years ago

    prettyboytim, hope you're right... just small hope somewhere in deeps of mind... just hope.

  • Grayvern #93 3 years ago

    If you think about it its only the leads from 3d realms that are unlikely to get jobs, the general staff of the company who have probably been working all this time are probably just as likely to be employed as anyone else, people at other companies arent as stupid to assume blame to non managerial employees.

    And @ stop-gap, if you were a coder or designer who was working steadily for 10+ years, on a steady project then why would you leave. In fact if they never had to go into crunch time to get anything finished by a deadline then it would probably be a better work experience working there than most other game companies.

    Not that all the who ha phases me, i wouldn't be all that interested in it if it had some out. However commenting that reading stories about the game and being interested wasted your life is odd, if anything something so interesting to discuss enriches your life and adds to interesting things to talk about.

    Really to me though its no where near as painful as the true what if's like if interplay had sane management and had continied with van buren and various other interesting projects. (no im not insane I do like bethesdas fallout 3)
    Edited by 2 at 11/05/09 @ 23:54

  • bad09 #94 3 years ago

    "[link url=http://ko taku.com/5247608/duke-nukem-for...
    ]http://ko taku.com/5247608/duke-nukem-for...[/link]


    nothing very special imo "

    Eh? I so jaded on FPs at the mo (not even got Riddick yet!), but that looked wicked fun! Shame... :(

    / plans to play some DN3D tonight

  • TrevSkyline #95 3 years ago

    Given ALL the interest in this game, I honestly can't believe Publishers are not falling over themselves to get this game made!!!

    This could bring a few new (and old) things into the next gen first person shooter that people have been crying out for.

    Such a missed opportunity.....

  • AOFanboi #96 3 years ago

    <em>Take 2 have made a huge mistake not funding them...Thanks Take 2...</em>

    WTF are you on? Did they not fund them for most of the twelve years in which 3D Realms produced NO GAME while other teams made ground-breaking and excellent shooters like Half-Life, Far Cry, Halo series etc.? Other studios were making MULTIPLE triple-A titles in the time these guys burned money producing NO GAME. They obviously SUCKED and there is a limit to how long someone bothers funding something that never comes. Twelve years - heck even a 1-man team can make a decent shooter in that time, and that includes learning 3DS Max, programming and the intricacies of an engine from scratch.

  • ChoedanKal #97 3 years ago

    The Iron Duke will never die.

  • E-Raz0r #98 3 years ago

    DNF - Did Not Finish.

  • m0thr4 #99 3 years ago

    Fortune favours the brave. Any smart developers at 3DR will have realised that this was going nowhere and jumped ship long before it finally sank.

    Darwin Awards all round to those who were still left when it went under.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/09 @ 18:09

  • m0thr4 #100 3 years ago

    @Zedfragg
    I have no doubt that the talented D3 modders out there could whack the parts together and create a game (depending on how much was left to finish)

    Surely that's the point isn't it? How much was left to finish. If you've sunk 12 years' of funding into a game, you don't drop it lightly - you want some return on your investment. For this to be dropped, I'd reckon the game was probably only about 10-25% complete. Think about it - all we've actually seen is leaked footage of a few character animations, a couple of levels and a boss fight.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/09 @ 18:14