posted
Gamespy article here; other sources, including Wikipedia, seem to be confirming it, and the 3drealms web site appears to be offline.
For both the people out there who still care.
I played Duke Nukem 3D in college, and Apogee's games before that. "D3D" was fun and innovative at the time. And I sort of hesitate to spit on anyone's ashes in the current economic climate. But 3D Realms' behavior over the last several years was an embarrassment. Continually touting their inability to move forward on a sequel while competing FPS games and even whole freaking operating systems went through multiple iterations like it was evidence of some kind of artistic purity was pathetic; slapping their logo on others' work (in some cases, half-baked work, at that) and prostituting out their one remaining visible original intellectual property made the charade all the more ridiculous.
Apparently "Duke Nukem Trilogy", a series of games for handheld consoles by a small spin-off company (most notable for a much-mocked convention preview video), is still going forward at the present time. I dare hope that after that the character can be put to rest.
Adios, 3D Realms; in your final demise, you've managed to make Ion Storm and the whole Daikatana debacle look good.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
The sad thing is, this probably increases the chances that we'll ever actually see Duke Nukem Forever released.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
This is pretty sad. Some good guys that I know lost their jobs after more than a decade of hard work, and will never get to see the fruits of their labors. This is to be mourned, not mocked, in my opinion.
Posts: 1539 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, here's the thing. Ion Storm was, without question, a monument to hubris that squandered an awful lot of money. But it actually made games. If you count the Austin office, it made some good games; even if you insist on reducing your view to only the Dallas office, there's still Anachronox. By any standard, it made more original games between its inception and its close than 3D Realms.
The last original game 3D Realms made was Shadow Warrior, most notable for managing to take any vestige of "cool" out of being a ninja by putting you in the shoes of a character who was equal parts embarrassing racial stereotype and embarrassing randy old goat.
Daikatana was a miserable failure by a number of standards- graphics, original ideas, AI, storyline, voice acting- but it was an actual game in a box that you could buy, play, and complete.
I can find pity for some of the people who worked at 3D Realms, certainly. Not least because having 3D Realms on one's CV has got to engender the interviewer question, "So, what exactly have you been doing for the last ten years?" But observing what little the company has made visible has been a tragicomic affair at best. Job openings for level designers and texture artists working to relocate to Texas on the promise of royalties [from no apparent source]? Booths at consumer electronics shows full of scantily clad models, but nary a screen shot in sight?
Until and unless a credible explanation is offered, I can find sympathy for employees, but none for the company as an entity; by all appearances, it should have collapsed years ago. If its management had allowed it to do so in an organized fashion, some of its properties and people might have gone into actual games, and made actual money.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm just nervous because the Mayan calendar ends in a couple years. We have a black President, and gay marriage is legal. Now there's a good chance that Duke Nukem Forever might actually see release.
If the Cubs win the World Series, I'm going to pick a god and start praying to it.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
A little background on the DN4 debacle, including an illuminating list of things that happened and games that were developed during the same timeframe, and other events that took less time to occur (like the development of the atomic bomb.)
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
