3D Realms, the developers behind Duke Nukem Forever, has shut down. Duke Nukem Forever has been in “development hell” longer than just about any other videogame ever. Now, if Internet reports are to be believed, the game may either never see the light of day, or be finished by another (presumably faster) developer. The news that 3D Realms had shut down was leaked to Shacknews. But 3D Realms’ webmaster appears to have confirmed it on the company’s forum, saying: “It’s not a marketing thing, it’s true.”

Duke Nukem Forever, the fourth Duke Nukem first-person shooter and 3D Realms’ main project, was first announced over ten years ago in April 1997. Recent Twitter updates by company employees indicated that the game was finally nearing completion.

With Duke Nukem Forever’s developers 3D Realms apparently shuttered, then what does this mean for the perhaps nearly-finished game? According to Take Two, they “continue to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever.” In other words, if anyone’s going to pick up the pieces, it will be them. Take Two is the parent company behind Grand Theft Auto and Bioshock. So there should be development expertise to finish up whatever’s left of Duke Nukem Forever.

In other Duke Nukem news, Deep Silver and Apogee announced that any 3D Realms news has no effect on the upcoming handheld console Duke Nukem Trilogy.



It's a sad deal. One of my favorite video game series is now dead.

So I wrote these final words.....

May we all gather here to say goodbye to one of the most badass video game characters of all time.

Duke Nukem

Duke was a badass, simple as that, blasting aliens, slaughtering pigcops, going to tittie bars, and drinking beer.

He will always be a legend, no matter what anyone says. but now, Duke is gone from us. He has passed away, after a life that was full of killing, fun, and strip clubs.

He passed away on May 6, 2009 after 3D Realms shut their doors, taking away the life of a famous American Icon.

Like Duke always said, "Let's Rock", that phrase, and many other phrases have been a staple to pop culture

He is survived by...........a bunch of strippers, pornstars, and hookers.

May Duke Nukem never be forgotten

Let's bow are heads for a moment of silence..............................................................

and let's raise are shot glasses, one more time, for a video game legend. Duke Nukem

Rest In Peace Duke Nukem

I heard something about this on Slashdot yesterday, and I thought 3D Realms said it wasn't in any deep trouble ?

It's been confirmed by employees that they are shutting down.

This really sucks. I remember going to 3d Realms website and thinking "how cool is that, this company keeps releasing their old games for free and keep selling other old games, it would be too bad if it shuts its doors someday". And the day has come. RIP, 3D Realms.

how cool is that, this company keeps releasing their old games for free

Indeed, I think the biggest loss here is the liberation of the formerly registered episodes from their back catalogue.

Huh, though from the looks of things on their website, they cleared away everything that was still theirs to clear before dropping this bomb. (Including long since thought lost source code for their text adventure games!)

Yeah, this is really weird. Despite the joke that the game had become, I honestly thought they would finish it one day. But who knows, maybe they will *now*. Someone probably will buy the rights to the franchise, either finishing DNF or doing something entirely new with it.

I want my 12 years back!

Tell that to this guy.

Too bad, I'd really like DNF to become a reality. Not that I look forward to play it, mind, I just think Prey would appreciate the company in the games-that-takes-a-century-to-come-out-and-turn-out-to-be-a-rather-mediocre-piece-of-crap-that-everyone-forgets-about-within-a-week category 8-)

LOL, right to the heart of the matter with a very sharp knife, as usual!

Although it's correct that everybody has forgotten about it, it was actually a really good FPS game!

Seconded. Though its puzzles could have used a lot less of the hand-holding 'Babies might play this' approach.

One does wonder the "what if" factor, if they actually stuck to one game engine...and probably not surprisingly... it sucked. Always near impossible to overshadow a cult classic.

This just in:

3 minutes of DNF footage

I still don't understand why it looks much worse than that 2000 video. Duke Nukem is at its best when set in recognizable real world locations that you can interact with in numerous ways and the colourful aliens cross-bred with animals.

This footage looks like a random sci-fi shooter, except the first person bird flipping part, that was a lovely piece of dukeness.

At least the jokes will stop now.

Who still wants to believe this is a marketing stunt? o/

Edit: I even have a bet for the release date: Jul 01, exactly 18 years after the first release of Duke Nukem.

I definitely don't think we've seen the last of Duke Nukem Forever. I'd even go so far as to suggest that the game is "Done." Or close enough. Look at the interest whipped up on the internet after 3D Realms' closure. This game will be released.

Plus I don't think that 3 min promo reel is comprised of up to date footage.

And of course, there's this - which may be nothing... or may be something very big indeed.

I think it's related to this, rather than Forever.

Apparently 3D Realms might be shopping the game around. The studio is said to have turned down a $30,000,000 million bid by Take-Two for the Duke Nukem license (and possibly the game). But honestly, DN3D is a lot of nostalgia I really don't want to see revived with a production process of chaos.

... I am crying for a week now and it doesn't get any better :(
Nearly all companies I grew up with are no more.

Love the game, mate...not the company...they die and fade away...

But not the game. Yay!

I know I know. The thing is - every time one of these companies fades away it reminds me of my age ;)

Dude, that applies to most of us. Games is our only access to an illusionary form of a fountain of youth. :)

Jesus, I'm up to here with all those articles featuring zomg-never-seen-before DNF footage and screenshots and whatever and DNF-related discussions and theorizing and all that DNF-related shit that flooded teh interwebs in these past few days. GIVE IT UP ALREADY, GODDAMNIT! D=<

The game doesn't even exist and I already hate it more than I hate Halo, which is quite a bit.

Sometimes I really wonder these FPS games. I have yet to find one that can realistically throw a grenade out of a window without it bouncing off the wall half of the time. :p

I don't suppose anyone was going to buy it but for novelty sake if it did come out.

Don't be too sure of that. ;)

Right now, we're stuck in the alternate 1985 where DNF never came out, what a terrible place.

I need the assistance of three other crew members (one can be the doc, the other Einstein, and lastly Jenifer), we'll go to 3D Realms circa 2001 and try to repair the space-time continuum.

Well okay, now we've got the makings of a new game -- the quest for Duke Nukem Forever!

Actually, that would be a fun subject for an original DN game made with the level editor.

Take-Two Sues 3D Realms for Failing to Deliver Duke Nukem Forever

Ah, beat me to it =(

I don't know whether to ROFL at 3d Realms for getting their asses sued, so they'll finally paying for being such a bunch of useless jackasses; or to ROFL at Take Two for plunking like 12 gazillion dollars in this bullshit and only protesting now. Like, didn't they suspect something was not right when a generic FPS was taking over a decade to be made?

Another Take-Two game: Prey - announced 1995, released 2006.

That's 11 years, not much of a difference to DNF's 12 years.

Scenario: Take-Two wins the case and obtains the source code. It is given to Human Head who get a year and a half to finish it to the best of their possibilities (Human Head doesn't seem to be working on a title right now). It is released by Christmas 2010 and it sells bucketloads of copies.

I wonder why there still are marketing/management/developer jarheads who have the bad habit of announcing games when it isn't even half done. I mean, is it so hard to wait?

Its like a teenaged loser who gloats about dating a girl, when all he has is a phone number.

They do that because, in doing so, they get money to complete the thing. It's like when you want to do something but you don't have all the money to do it: you ask for money from a friend, and you promise to pay him back because what you'll do will make you rich. In the case of gaming industry, it's not even a loan, as they can get money from marketing beforehand.

I see. They need to hire a better lawyer to handle the contracts. :p

[edit] Then canceling DNF doesn't make sense to me now?

That's why some people still think it is a marketing thing. But it seems to me that it came to that point that it took so much time that the money wasted in all those 12 years wouldn't be gained back by the release of the game, maybe.

It should be noted that usually a publisher is financing the game. This means the developer must have some sort of progress (milestones) otherwise the publisher just pulls the plug instead of continue financing a "dead cow".

The difference here is that Take Two had an "inter-publisher-transaction". Meaning that they bought the exclusive publishing rights from Infogrames in 2000, but had no financial commitment to DNF (3D Realms). This resulted in the famous "Take Two needs to STFU imo." speech. :)

This resulted in that 3D Realms could throw all their money out of the window without fearing any threats from Take Two, after all it was their own money they've thrown out.

As for Take Two, they couldn't really loose. They didn't pump money in it year for year for development, they could just sit back and relax until it's release to cash in. Even if 3D Realms's DNF would be the biggest shit ever conceived, on the other side it has made the biggest hype - just for being a Duke game, enough people would buy it.

But Take Two lost - for now - simply because 3D Realms had pulled the plug themselves, which apparently is a breach of contract. And a good starting point for suing. :)

3D Realms Release – Pertaining to Recent Events Surrounding Duke Nukem Forever.

Meanwhile, 3DR put over $20m into the production of DNF.

Yep, those chaps sure know how how to invest their money. Yikes, you can buy an island over here for that kind of cash. :p