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3D Realms Won't Rush Duke Nukem Forever
Posted by
Zonk
on Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:14 AM
from the why-rush-it-now dept.
from the why-rush-it-now dept.
WeAz writes "GameSpot has news that 3D Realms has no plans on rushing Duke Nukem Forever. Despite the $500,000 bounty that Take-Two Interactive was found to be offering for the game after a filing with the SEC last week, George Broussard, President of 3D Realms, has given his official response: 'We're certainly not motivated by that amount of money, after all this time, and getting the game right is what matters. I would never ship a game early (even a couple of months), for 500k.'"
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Duke Nukem Forever Due This Year? 251 comments
nz17 writes "Under the original deal, 3D Realms was to receive some $6 million from Take-Two to develop the title. Now the Texas-based developer will receive only $4,250 for the oft-delayed game when it is completed. Just the same, 3D Realms has a fairly large incentive to get Duke Nukem Forever done by the end of the year; Take-Two has offered the studio $500,000 in the form of a promissory note if the game sees commercial release by December 31, 2006."
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Duke in Trouble? 114 comments
1up reports on rumours of trouble at 3D Realms, the long-term developers of the Duke Nukem Forever project. The duke project is apparently in jeopardy, according to the buzz, as several key developers have left the company for greener pastures. 3D Realms webmaster Joe Siegler has responded to these rumours, saying on the message boards "It's internal business - all employee departures and comings have always been that way. This is nothing new. People have left before, IT IS THE NATURE OF THIS BUSINESS. It's the way it goes ... There's honestly nothing to be concerned about. People leave. People come. There's staff on the project you don't know about."
[+]
Duke Nukem Forever 'Confirmed' For Late 2008 344 comments
An anonymous reader writes "A Dallas newspaper is claiming that the long-in-development title Duke Nukem Forever is headed for retail release in late 2008. Unfortunately, game creator 3D Realms says that's not exactly what they meant. 'What the modest Texas newspaper actually seems to suggest is that 3D Realms is "on target" to release the mythical sequel sometime this year, though company president Scott Miller adds, "we may miss the mark by a month or two" (wink, wink). Miller also hinted that "hitting the big three" (in this case, PC, Xbox 360 and PS3) is the obvious development strategy, but he continued to stress that 3D Realms has not "formally announced any platforms for DNF."'"
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What??? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What??? (Score:3, Funny)
Rushing it could... (Score:5, Funny)
What would the kittens do?
Parent
Re:Rushing it could... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What??? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Misquoted (Score:5, Funny)
"I would never ship a game early (even a couple of months), for 500k.'"
What he really said was:
"I would never ship a game"
Parent
Re:What??? (Score:5, Funny)
They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.
Parent
Re:What??? (Score:3, Funny)
Everything is relative (Score:4, Funny)
Imagine you have a snail. The snail has been moving from one city to another distant city. This has been going on for the last 5 years.
Thus "rush" in this context means making the snail go faster, but still within it's capabilities.
Now, just fill in the blanks by considering that the Duke Nukem Forever development team departed one year before the snail and the snail already overtook them and you'll get the picture...
Parent
Re:What??? (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, I could see the beginning of "Red Sector A" being in DNF
"Are we the last ones left alive?
Are we the only human beings to survive?"
Of course, if Quark were in the background intoning "hu-man" everytime that word came up in the song, it would be even cooler.
Re:What??? (Score:4, Funny)
It's possible to rush Duke Nukem Forever .
Parent
Oh good! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh good! (Score:2)
Re:Oh good! (Score:5, Funny)
I'm concerned that if it's released too soon, it might not be certified to work on Windows Vista.
Parent
Re:Oh good! (Score:4, Funny)
More like a fine wine that has to age for decades. :-D
Besides, they've already missed the end of one century. Why not go for two?
Parent
Re:Oh good! (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Ha! (Score:5, Funny)
Don't wory George, I don't think anybody could accuse you of doing that!
Re:Ha! (Score:3, Funny)
So... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Seriously, which engine? (Score:3, Funny)
DNF v. Vista (Score:5, Funny)
Re:DNF v. Vista (Score:5, Funny)
Weirder still is the fact that Duke Nukem Forever has taken more time to create than NASA took to design & build a pair of robots, fly them to Mars, and drive them around for a year.
Parent
Re:DNF v. Vista v. NASA (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
What DNF Can Teach NASA (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:What DNF Can Teach NASA (Score:4, Informative)
The previous poster wasn't talking about the Mars Polar Lander, they were referring to the $125 Million Mars Climate Orbiter.
"nothing as dramatic as confusing the two measures of distance - that would be unthinkable - and not even NASA is dumb enough to make such a mistake."
Someone should inform NASA of this. They admitted that this is precisely what happened. Actually, though, Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft, and it was their engineers who used English units. NASA, like everyone else in the (scientific) world, uses metric.
"No, the problem was that the conversion variables were not of sufficient accuracy, and over a period of 18 months where the computers used the conversion many thousands of times, the eventual height that the motors cut out was too high to allow the craft to survive."
If you're referring to the Mars Polar Lander, then that's also inaccurate. NASA's internal report states that the most likely cause of the loss of the Polar Lander is that its engines cut off upon deployment of its three 'legs'. Onboard sensors believed the craft had landed due to incorrect sensor readings, so the engines cut off and the craft plumeted to its doom.
However, the previous poster did make one mistake. The Mars Climate Orbiter likely did not crash into "the body it was orbiting". Due to the units conversion problem, the navigation system did not begin its burn to slow the spacecraft into a proper Mars orbit until it was far too close to the planet already. The result was that the Orbiter was travelling far too fast, its thrusters overheated during their burn and shut down, the craft plowed through the atmosphere, and continued on its way. Speculation is that it currently holds an orbit around the sun.
Parent
Re:DNF v. Vista (Score:3, Insightful)
Nice Try but... (Score:5, Interesting)
5 years != 10 years.
Parent
It has to be said (Score:2, Funny)
Thank God. (Score:5, Funny)
What is wrong with these people? (Score:3, Insightful)
Meanwhile, they continue to delay it and the project clearly has no well-defined sense of direction. They've basically scrapped it and started over from scratch I don't know how many times, and feature creep is not so much a problem as it is a religion for them. I mean come on, an FPS with the ability to send email? 5 years from now, when they decide to release another few screenshots to drum up interest in the "imminent" release of the product, they'll show the game automatically ordering milk when your smart fridge tells it you're almost out.
By the time this game comes out (if it ever does), all of the people that would have run out and bought it just because it's the greatest running joke in Internet history will have all died, and their grandchildren won't get what all the fuss is about.
Re:What is wrong with these people? (Score:3, Funny)
Wait a minute, are we talking about Vista?
and feature creep is not so much a problem as it is a religion for them.
Ah, I guess not.
Finkployd
WTF? Talk about uninformed (Score:3, Insightful)
I thought everyone knew this. 3Drealms in an independent like Id (quake) and can do what it wants. They self financed it from the money earned with the earlier Duke Nukem titles.
Wich goes to show how much of a success they were and how little development has to cost (especially when you don't produce anything). Compare this to the guys who did daikata
Re:WTF? Talk about uninformed (Score:5, Informative)
As they say on their website: In business since 1991. Never had a loan. Never had layoffs. Extremely stable and successful environment.
Parent
Re:WTF? Talk about uninformed (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.gameproducer.net/2006/06/13/interview-w ith-3drealms-ceo-scott-miller-prey-game-production -insight [gameproducer.net]
GameProducer.net: 3DRealms got praise from Remedy when they were doing their first cinematic action title Max Payne. Remedy said that it has been great to work with a publisher that gave no or little pressure about the deadlines. I heard the famous slogan "When it's done" first time said by Remedy & 3D Realms.
The problem is (Score:5, Insightful)
So when development starts to stretch in to the 5+ year bracket you are losing a lot of work. Unless they orignally planned to release it this far off and designed accordingly (which would be hard with the way technology changes) they've been doing a lot of development to no end.
A similar thing happened to Shadowbane. Though it had many other problems, one was just that it didn't look very good. It's graphics were fine for when they first started talking about it, but it took so long to release that by the time they came out they were rather dated. That could have worked perhaps had it been an awesome game, but it was so it flopped.
I think DNF faces a similar problem. Either they have been updating their engine and assets, in which case they've been wasting colossal amounts of time and money, even if it is their own, or they are talking about releasing a game with Quake 1 graphics to compete with things like FEAR.
They claim they are using the Unreal 2.5 engine (basically the post UT2004 development engine, UT 2004 was UE2) so that means that they have redone development. In fact, if you look at their timeline they went from Q1 to Q2 to UE1 to UE1.5 to UE2 to UE2.5. Well that means there's had to be some significant updating of grpahics assets to keep pace with that. It's also a lot of money sunk. iD and Epic do not give their engines away, they license them for 6 figures, regardless of if you get your game out the door.
Parent
Re:The problem is (Score:3, Interesting)
So, of:
Two of them, Code and Graphics, have an "expiration date" and they comprise "almost all" the content?
In fact, if you look at t
Re:The problem is (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, the two things off the list comprise most of the work. Just because a list has 5 items does not mean all items are equal. If my weekend todo list was "Replace burnt out light bulb, buy a new garden hose, vacuum living room, wash the car, and rebuild my car engine" you can't very well say they are all equal. The bulb replacement is a 1 minute job, rebuilding an engine is a major operation.
Code and graphics are the
Let me be the first to say (Score:3, Funny)
Duke Nukem Forever... Ship Early...
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Good headline (Score:5, Funny)
Right up there with "A new study shows that Men like to have sex" and "The sun is expected to rise in the morning"
Wait. Im being handed a piece of paper. Holy Cow! Breaking news! "Companys like free publicity!"
baaad grammatical pun (Score:5, Funny)
Oh yeah, well how long will they be rushing it?
Bad-dum-dum
Get it? Forever? Like they'll be rushing it forever
Thank you!!! I'll be here all week!
Ha! (Score:5, Funny)
1998 called. They want their story back.
Nah (Score:3, Funny)
Early? (Score:5, Funny)
This must be some new usage of the word 'early' that until now I have been unaware of.
Something doesn't add up (Score:5, Interesting)
Use common sense for a moment.
It takes 3-4 years to write, cast, design, film, edit, and release a major Hollywood picture like a Star Wars or an X-Men, which can cost $100MM or more to develop.
It takes 3-4 years to concieve, design, manufacture, and ship a new console like a PS2 or Gamecube.
Rockstar developed and released three new hit games with a new engine and tremendous amounts of content since 2001.
But it takes nine years to program a knockoff Doom clone? Really? Are they coding it on a loom?
Things I would love to know:
1) Exactly how many programmers are working on DNF.
2) What percentage of their days are spent on DNF versus other tasks.
3) Why management keeps an obviously defunct product on the books when normal business practice would suggest writing it off at this point, having missed at least SEVEN release years in a row.
4) I am dying to see the balance sheets for this project.
There is no game, there never will be a game. But there may be an audit.
Re:Something doesn't add up (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
The man has a point. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Something doesn't add up (Score:3, Funny)
That's all I needed to read to know you're full of shit.
There are no investors. 3Drealms has been in business sincde 1991, has never taken out a loan, and has never had a layoff.
In short, there was no post. You did not make a post. The readers who thought they were reading a post were fleeced. You're a moron.
Title asked for mockery (Score:3, Insightful)
More serious note:
I find the whole DNF saga tragic. They're trying to create the ultimate game, but the longer they wait, the more spectacular it will have to be in order to be considered
a) worth the wait and...
b) better than whatever else is out at the time.
3D Realms had their time, but the electronic entertainment industry is one of the most competitive out there, and firms like 3D Realms just don't stand a chance of survival unless they can produce quality product on a consistent basis. I have the feeling that they're reworking their game every time some new trendy concept becomes popular. For example, how much you wanna bet that one of the "start from scratch" moments was when bullet-time got huge? Remember Max Payne and how revolutionary it was? I'd be willing to wager that 3D Realms has an Achilles' Heel, and that is a propensity to go chasing after whatever is popular rather than trying to set their own trends.
3D Realms: Take a hint from Rockstar and create a new game. Create a game no one has played before. Bring elements into the game that are truly unique. At this point, with all the time and money you have invested in the project, it's too late to make anything mediocre. Be creative and think outside the box, because if you copycat, people will call you on it, and you will lose everything.
Duke Who? (Score:4, Insightful)
On the other hand, players of the original probably will not be interested in that type of game anymore. I played Duke 3d in University but that was 10+ years ago. I don't play FPS games anymore as I don't have time to get over the motion sickness curve. It takes me too long to get my FPS legs now.
I think this game will get no advantage from being a sequel.
I also have a serious hard time believing this game is actually in development. If it is, it already ranks as the most colossal development failure in the gaming industry ever. 10 Years. I am quaking in my boots at the dev costs on this one. And if this is a mind boggling huge game it will take an army to to polish and test it.
The first 100 Million dollar game?
lol (Score:3, Insightful)