Duke Nukem developer 3D Realms is shutting down

I was sad to read this, but when you have a game that you can't release for 10 years, its kind of expected.

It's almost criminal that they've lasted this long. I wonder what the final straw could have been after 10 years of final straws?

The King is dead. Long live the King!

I remember when etc., etc..

Great developer, but when you announce a project then spend over ten years developing said game there's something wrong, especially if it's not the first time you've done that. I'm sorry people lost their jobs, but come on. What was the last thing 3D Realms even released? Prey. In 2006. Before that? Duke Nukem Mobile 3D, which wasn't even developed by 3D Realms, it was done by Machine Works Northwest. Sorry if I sound harsh but there are realities to the game development/publishing biz, and that's that you actually have to produce a product.

Again, my sympathies to those who are now without work. 2K Games still holds the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever, maybe some of you can get a job with whatever studio is called in to actually finish the game.

Yeah something fundamentally broke at that company at some point.

I wish they could (and would) open source the project and allow the community to see what they had, and complete it. Unfortunately, they won't do it (as almost no game company ever has, as the are IP greedy and stuck in tons of contracts).

I also wish they hadn't pulled us along (lied to the community) and kept acting like it was right around the corner for... 10 years.

Both acts seem to be a smack in the face to the gaming community. I wish they'd had better project management on this. In 10 years with that team you should have been able to write a killer operating system from scratch, let alone actually release a game. Remember the open source mantra: release early, release often.

Hell, they could have designed, engineered and built a custom console to play the thing on, in addition to making the game, which would include all of the physics and AI code most devs turn to middleware for. It was like watching a star go supernova in slow motion, drawn out over an agonizing ten years.

I'm just waiting for the developers to sign book deals when they can, and talk about the 10 years of failure and development. Probably will make more money than the game would have.

Is anyone really that shocked? They should have shut down 10 years ago.

It is amazing they lasted so long. I guess it goes to show how motivated game devs can be when they simply love their work/product and/or the team they're working with.

To bad, I really enjoyed Major Stryker well when they were Apogee Software.

I guess it happens... but 10 years on 1 project? I'm confident that investors are the ones who pulled the plug. Paying salaries for 10 years with no return on their investments. Someone had to draw a line, and I guess that was it.

They haven't been inactive for 10 years. from 1999 to now they've published 9 games, like Manhattan project and some gameboy games, most recently being the arcade version of Duke Nukem 3D for 360. They also published the two Max Payne games and Prey.

This is sad news. I really do want more Duke Nukem.

Well, I'm going to sum up what happened here with a few notable quotes from Duke Nukem himself:

"What are you waiting for? Christmas?"
"Uh, Uh, Uh. Where is it? "
"Shit happens..."

So yea, it's sad...but expected. I will still hold out a little place in my heart for the day somebody brings this project back to life.

I really would like to see some real view into what happened and what was actually going on in those 10 years. A book about it, as Tibbon suggested, would be pretty sweet to see (though a video documentary would be better...I want visuals!). It's kind of like after all this time, we just want to get something...anything...out of all the anticipation the gaming community has had for the game. It's not that we deserve it or anything...it'd just help to fill that emptiness left behind from the end of an era.

Duke Nukem Forever will have to wait.....Forever~

god damn, it's about time something happened with 3D realms. I mean it sucks their company died (or is dying), but at least now someone's bound to purchase the Duke Nukem franchise. Hopefully it's a bigger company that doesn't take 10+ years to release a game. :p
Props to 3d for making some pimp games though.

This really isn't surprising news when you think about it. For most of the community of gamers, many of the current generation don't even know who they are, let alone any of the games they released.

I can't say I'm saddened though, for the obvious reason of, 'why should I be?'. 3D Realms has been little more than a joke for years now, and I'm sure I'm not the only one whose surprised it took this long to announce calling it a day. I do wish their staff well, and hope they can find work elsewhere.

We can only hope that this will be the end for the rather tired "Duke Nukem: Taking Forever." gag.

Is the Duke Nukem franchise even relevant these days?

@Imran What are you? Some bottom-feeding, scum sucking algae eater? Of course Duke Nukem is relevant. Tis a classic and as such will forever be relevant.

Crazy long compilation of Duke Nukem quotes (Rated M for bad language): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZf64NfQATM

Am I really the only one who thinks that Duke Nukem Forever has a far better chance of actually being made and released with 3D Realms closing their doors? Come on, I really can't be the only one.

3D realms would say so. After all, its about all they ever made barring Prey and Max Payne. My problem is that they had such a long development cycle and small production team trying to pull off large scale projects.

It was bound to backfire eventually.

As for getting it created by a 3rd party company: Do you honestly think that anyone will touch Duke Nukem with a barge pole unless they could make a few 'tweaks' to the character? After all, he was badass as hell, and just a 'touch sexist'... and when I say touch, I mean 'slapped arse on a stripper'.

After all, they killed Leisure Suite Larry by toning him down, Imagine what they would do to Duke. I feel the only people who would take on the franchise and not kill the character by toning him down would be Rockstar games, IF they would be willing to buy the rights. Only then do I think we'd see Duke Nukem, as nature intended...

Covered in the blood of his enemies, a beer in one hand and a stripper in the other.

I wish all those that lost their jobs good luck with finding a new one.

That seriously is a kick to the nuts. Maybe it really was "Duke Nukem Never".

Actually, I forgot about Prey... I guess that means no more Prey 2!

Now I'm really sad!

Apparently someone called 'Rader Group' is now producing Prey 2. So provided they don't go under, we could still have it.

A different developer is working on Prey 2.

3D Realms is no more... surreal. I needed a day for it to sink in fully.
Duke Nukem 3D was my favourite game for a long time, and every other year or so I felt hopeful towards seeing DNF again. Now I don't know what to think, need more info.
(Wow, this discussion actually survived for over 10 posts before somebody couldn't stop himself from making a "forever" joke.)

That's crazy, I can not recall the show I was watching but they were interviewed and gave confirmation in imagery that they were working on a next gen Duke game and from what the monitor showed it was open environement full 3D.

They had Duke Nukem Forever footage on the Jace Hall show (Web TV show) last year, you may be thinking of that.