3D Realms closure confirmed, Take-Two retains Duke Nukem Forever publishing rights

Finally... Can't wait til this IP changes hands... Maybe Epic or Crytek or Valve...

I have no idea how they managed to fund 3DRealms this long, given that they haven't really done anything in the last decade, besides production work on Max Payne and Prey.

I hope Epic picks up the Duke Nukem License.

One of the founders of the industry is gone...

Can't feel sorry for them as they brought it upon themselves. This should have ended a long, long time ago...

So it's finally over huh? I guess I can't say that I didn't see this coming... Oh well, I guess I'll just keep playing the original Duke3D on my 360.

yawn, just read on Tomshardware, the 3D Realms is still going full force on DNF...

in years to come 3d Realms blunder will become legendary, it will be a cautionary tale for all video game companies. To procrastinate to the point of stagnation is to "Pull a Duke Nukem"

Always Bet On Duke !

I feel bad for all the people who pre-ordered DNF back in '97 (and still have the pre-order ticket stub sitting in their wallet or hanging on their wall).

At least Take-Two will actually finish the poor thing. Duke Nukem Forever could have been a series of games by now.

lol the trailer still looks pretty good. Couldn't help but laugh at the end of that trailer. "when it's done"

Oh my god. This could prove to be the biggest blunder in Video Game history. No wait...it probably is and the only thing I can do is look on and shake my head in dismay. I can't believe someone can mess up this bad for so many years. I guess it was inevitable. 3D Realms...

I would way wtf but the "when it's done attitude" does not cut it, it's more of a, we are just lazy and have nothing good. Not really surprised at the news to be honest. Duke3d was a great game and they should have just stuck with the unreal 1 engine but whatever.

This is a sad day in gaming. Anyone hating, just think back and remember how many times you pressed your spacebar just to see some pixillated boobs. Will we never again see an FPS as humorous, yet engrossing as Duke Nukem? I guess this means that Prey 2 is a fish out of water now.

NOSTALGIA ALERT: Shadow Warrior may have been a bit close to the racism line for this decade, but taken as a farcical over-the-top adventure, it was brilliant fun and had a lot of funny one-liners. I just remembered it and had to throw it out there to see if anyone remembers it as fondly as I do. Shadow Warrior and Duke 3D were like sisters, both singular in personality but both wonderfully over-the-top and funny.

Wolfenstein 3D was an id game published by 3Drealms 3DRealms had good games when they got them out the door. They would have done well to discipline themselves more by perhaps setting some deadlines. I think the reality was that they wanted to make the perfect Duke Nukem 3D sequel instead of just making a for-the-time-being rocking Duke experience. They could have released the Duke back in 2001 in that Unreal incarnation and then followed up with the version they are cooking up now here in the next year or so. I would have been twice as happy. 3DRealms seemed to be looking for the "end all, be all" instead of following the tried and true method of doing what you can with what you have, making the best game right now and then returning to that franchise later when the technology has moved forward. For some reason, 3Drealms acted like they only had one shot to make a kick ass first-person shooter Duke game. It's sad they felt that way, we've seen 3 Halos and 5 Call of Dutys in the 12 years between DNF's announcement and this bit of news. Besides all the sub-par Duke spin-offs they made (or had a hand in), they could have put out at least 2 Dukes by now. I'll trade one well done title that took too long and took too many reboots for two well done, fun shooters. The sad truth is the game could never have been perfect, and hell might not have turned out that good---but we may never know. 3Drealms could have stuck with each iteration and worked to its strengths and they'd have 2 or 3 Duke games over the coarse of this decade --- they probably could have survived long enough (even if they weren't 'perfect Duke 3D sequels) to finish the most recent version which was looking really good. Oh well, it's too bad because I DID really like the way the newest shots were looking--and there was a sense of urgency like they had to do it in the next year or so--so I felt like we were finally going to get to kick ass and chew bubble gum and be all out of gum I hope the game survives and sees release sometime -- as true to the intent of 3Drealms as is possible. Duke is too bad ass to go out with such a whimper. His name is dollar signs. I'll miss 3Drealms for the nostalgia and the games they are attached to, but being as they haven't produced much in the last decade--I can't say they didn't have it coming. Duke you live on in our hearts and minds "Shake it baby"

Please TT, release this game, 3D Realms wasn't going to do anything no matter how long we waited or how much money they would have gotten to finance the game. The only thing they succeed in doing was becoming the butt of the gaming industry, they are the butt joke. Duke Nukem will be missed.

@ -Dark_Palladin-: Thanks. At least someone agrees with me.

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

@Morphine_OD: What are ya talking aboot?

@Mandalore_15: Where, oh great one, did I say "12 years"? It took 6 years to make Half-Life 2. And 9 years for Team Fortress 2. That's a really long time for just a multiplayer.

PodXCOM is along a few good lines. 3D Realms obviously had their fans in mind, as well as just how fun as the game could be by telling how hard they worked on (How many other companies switch constantly to different engines simply to provide the best game experiance?). Its truly sad seeing that the company that revoulutionized the fps genre (ie. Wolfenstien, Prey, Duke Nukem) instantly become the laughing stock of the universe simply because time felt like bullying them through a 12 year period just to fail a product like this publicly. I had seriously high hopes. I could just picture millions of modders modding the game, millions of FPS of the year game awards, and many fun, addicting hours with what could possibly be one of the best titles ever. Unfourtunetly, its time to kick ass and chew bubble gum. Apperantly, there is no more ass to kick and he's already ran out of gum 30000 times, so the King has died. R.I.P. Duke Nukem.

bah, what a shame

Urgh, well done PodXCOM for representing the voice of the mentally infirm... 12 years to make Half-Life 2? Good one.

Whoa! I visited their site just yesterday... What a shame...

The big question now is who will publish DNF, since T2 still owns the rights to the franchise? Rockstar, anyone?

@PodXCom Hey, get mine respect as well : "-1" Did you like it? I honestly did my best to please you! As for the topic: I just can't believe the news. I don't think it's the end of the story. DNF is too epic to sink like that.

What a shame. Looks like Duke Nukem forever should have it's name changed to "Duke Nukem Never."

"When it's done..."

@Bozanimal: Well said. But I thought Wolfenstein 3D, and Commander Keen was made by id?

It is a sad day for all gamers when the maker of Wolfenstein 3D, Commander Keen, and other classics closes, regardless of your opinion on Duke Nukem Forever or how the company was managed. I raise my Spear of Destiny to salute a firm that inspired legions of aspiring game designers.

awww I want the Duke Nukem Forever saga to live on.

I can't believe it... DNF was a part of the games industry that nothing else fills...

You know I will be honest with all of you guys. When the Daikatana saga was brewing and the game came out I thought that this episode will teach developers not to **** the customers who are thier source of income. Unfortunately it happened again this is the Daikatana of 2009. The only difference is that Daikatana came out and it dissapointed a lot of people while this game (god knows ) had the potential to be one of the best FPS. Damnit I want a duke nukem game !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, who can blame T2 for ending this never ending saga? DNF was essentially a money pit, and had become an industry gag. In 12 years, we've seen next to nothing except a few teasers. Obviously, they didn't take the game seriously, so why should anybody else?

What, HL2 took 12 years to make - I doubt that. Just because there is a gap between games does not mean devs are working on said games for this length of time. That DNF failed to be released is nothing but the fault of a software company that failed to keep up with the times. A massive shame but nothing new unfortunately.

PodXCOM's meltdown is the best part about this article.

12 years to get a game out? It's just a digital snipe hunt.

@Zoomer30: Please shut up. 3D Realms tried, and tried, and tried so hard to get this to work, and now they will be known as the biggest jokes of all time. So it took them a long time, so what? Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, StarCraft 2, Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, Diablo 3 all took just as long time to make, and no one here is making fun of them now, are they? So SHUT UP, and show some respect!

This news is really sad. I've been wanting a decent Duke game since I played the one PS1 that kinda sucked. The trailer above looked absolutely amazing! Well... Add it to the list of every other game that deserves a new addition but likely won't get it...anyone remember Dark Alliance? That needs a 3rd game badly, but...toooooo bad, I guess...

I'm unsurprised, and glad this stupidity has come to an end. Good riddance to the whole bloody lot of them! I blogged about this over a year ago, I said it doesn't exist, and now the rest of you can finally accept the truth. I hope I never hear about this garbage again.

Being dated doesn't mean a game won't be great. Doom is so old yet it's still ported to consoles. People still play Duke3D. Either the game is good or it's not, the graphics alone will never make a game good. It's the least important aspect of a game's design.

The 2001 trailer looked like a really good game. Shame it will probably never see the light of day.

There is no game that takes 12 years to make, and when you waste so much time that your game is outdated before it is done, this is what you get. For probably the last 5 years I quit caring at all about DNF, and I'm not shocked or particularly sorry for 3D Realms over what has happened.

Diakatana was a weekend coding project compared to DNF. Diakatana was hyped, coded, shipped and panned in the press before DNF was even a ego fueled glimmer in 3DRs rose colored eyes. DIA got nailed becasue it started dev just before the 3D accel stuff came out. Once they did, they needed to start over. I have lost count of how many game engines DNF has had, they are so slow that by the time they get done its "been there done that" and they have to start over.

This is what happens when you DON'T WORK and just fool around. Did they really think they could do nothing and still get paid for it?

comparing Duke Nukem with Minesweeper is like comparing Luke Skywalker with a pregnant sheep!

Looks like John Romero won a bet... He *did* make us his b*tch, afterall. Daikatana is looking pretty good right now. At least it got released. The odds of another Serious Sam sequel are better than DNF.

I think we can see a GTA/DNF tie in very soon. The Belic Bros head to Las Venturas to stop the evil Duke Nukem from taking over the city of Sin and killing all the aliens 0-o I love the tag at the end of that moldy E3 vid from 2001 "WHEN ITS DONE". Well the jokes on us. GTA and games like that make Duke blush. 3DRs ginorgantic ego pretty much made their "vapor-game" irrelevant since its been in dev so long.