Mere minutes after we received a whispered tip from a hooded figure soothsaying the news, Shacknews are reporting that 3D Realms has closed shop. The twenty-two year old developer apparently suffered funding issues, according to Shacknews’ similarly anonymous source, and staff from the company have been let go.
One of the greats, developing games since 1986 (under the name Apogee at that point), alongside id they were the progenitors of much that makes PC gaming great.
Unfortunately, 3D Realms became more famous over the last decade for what they didn’t release, rather than anything they did. The infamously vaporous Duke Nukem Forever became an industry gag during its thirteen years of alleged development, with the company apparently scrapping and restarting the project multiple times. But while it’s fun to dig out magazines from 1997 featuring previews of the long-awaited shooter, it’s not fair to let that be 3DR’s legacy.
Only yesterday they were celebrating the 17th anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D – a game they’d published as Apogee, working alongside id in creating one of the most important PC games of all. Their own Duke Nukem 3D went on to reinvent the potential for the first-person shooter, creating destructible environments, and multiple pathways through levels. It’s still utterly playable today.
They went on to work with Remedy on both Max Payne games, and with Human Head on Prey, all the while promising that Duke Nukem Forever. New footage of DNF appeared in June last year, then new screenshots in September. But of course this had been part of a repeating pattern, with the game allegedly ditched each time a new generation of FPS engines appeared from other developers.
Who knows where DNF lies now. Rumours were always floating around that the game existed in a playable form, and potential publishers 2K may well have some ability to swoop in and rescue whatever there is. It would be a great shame if the legendary game should officially disappear so ignominiously.
Shacknews reports that this will not affect either Deep Silver nor the recently revived Apogee Software publishers, which means the DS and PSP Duke Nukem Trilogy should still go ahead. Presumably there will be much more news in the morning. Oh, and our tipster would be very upset if we didn’t point out that DNF now stands for “Did Not Finish”.
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@Bobsy:
We already know who owns the assets. Take-Two does. There is no question about an unknown “publisher X”; it all belongs to Take-Two, effective now.
There is little question that they want the game finished, and will doubtless be handing off the assets to some developer to finish up the game (yes, I’m one of those who believed the claims that it was getting close to finished), just as soon as they can get a studio lined up. Perhaps one of their internal studios.
This is a shame, I have fond childhood memories of the old 2D Dukes, Wolfenstein, Commander Keen, Raptor… etc. etc. etc.
And even though DNF was a fiasco from start to finish I do kind of respect them for not caving in to financial and media pressure and releasing a game that they weren’t 100% happy with. How many other developers in the world could you say that about?
Oh, God, this is fantastic.
3DR is dead; long live 3DR
No, I dont think this is the real end of DNF. I think it will continue to live on in a limbo: Picked up by obscure german developers, dropped, picked up by more obscure eastern european devs, dropped and then finally picked up, transformed into an MMORPG and locally released to the south korean market as Lineage 3: Forever, where it lives out the rest of its days in the shadow of Starcraft.
Somewhere, John Romero rubs his hands as his Daikatanian fail is finally topped by the Duke.
@ Dreamhacker
That sounds like the later history of Commodore, minus the MMORPG part of course.
I almost hoped DNF would never come out, just to further the gag. Hearing this though, I hope it gets made and is enjoyable.
All hail to the king, baby!
Gutted, Duke Nukem 3D made a PC GAMER from day one and now it’s all over! :( Sad day indeed…
Oh well, plenty more good games in the sea!
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Rise of the Triad yet.
This is a sad(ish), but inevitable day.
Rest in peace, 3D Realms. :(
I seem to remember (from visiting them to see Prey years ago, noch) that they implied they were self-funded, from the founders who’d made a packet out of Apogee basically doing development as a hobby.
There’s not much to say that hasn’t already been said. 13 years making one game several times and doing nothing else. No wonder the money dried up.
A shame, since now we can’t keep mocking its “eventual” release.
Did Not Finish!
@ Hybrid: Good question, was about to ask the same thing.
My heart goes out to all involved, but based on Scott Miller’s amazing marketing know-how, I can’t help wondering if this is just a marketing ploy, and in 3 days, we’ll see “Duke Nukem: Jesus” or “Lazarus” or, less imaginatively “Resurrection”.
But thinking such things is wrong when people’s jobs are on the line, so I retract that. Except I’m going to press “Opinion away!” anyway. Even though I could have deleted that first paragraph instead, or just not posted such sick car-crash commentry.
Less than a month ’till E3.
I still have faith this is just a marketing ploy.
I’ve been waiting for this to happen for ages.
Why? So all the bitter people who finally worked in that madhouse are going to come out to the media and tell us what the fuck they were doing all this time.
Would it? It would be kind of simple, nothing would have to change. Personally I just couldn’t care less.
So this isn’t an April Fool that was delayed then?
Somewhat relevant story: http://gamingisstupid.com/2009/05/06/the-chair-story-revival/
@PJ: Blizzard, notoriously. But they do actually finish games. It seems 3DR lacked the ability to make the game they would be 100% happy with. Oh well.
Like most people, I’ve become pretty jaded of the whole thing and will be glad to see it put to bed. Whether thats from official abandonment of the project or just palming it off on another developer that will release a second rate game that we can all forget about (remember Daikatana?), it doesn’t matter.
RiptoR: Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait…
Wait a minute.
Is that shit for real???
I mean, all these years, all those rumours, the delays, the revamps, the different engines… Was it all orchestrated from the beginning?? They never intended to develop (forget about releasing) a real DNF after several years had passed and a batch of future engines no-one could even dream about were available?
Holy shit! That’s the actual relevant news, and not the presumed closure of 3D Realms…
That’s a fake story written over a year ago, I posted a link on the other 3DR news.
Seeing as it ends with the writer having the crap kicked out of him by four of the most public figures in gaming… I call fake. I mean really.
“progenitors of much that makes PC gaming great.”
You gotta be kidding me, they never done any adventure game or RPG or simulation, just action junk.
And on action games they’re neither the people behind Alien Breed or those crazy persons behind Chaos Engine. What’s apogee done? Didn’t they, with ID, start the downfall of serious gaming and pioneers of the age when 3d engines are more important than pure gameplay?
Duke 3D is more interactive than 98% of today’s games.
“So all the bitter people who finally worked in that madhouse are going to come out to the media and tell us what the fuck they were doing all this time.”
Weren’t they addicted to Everquest and WoW?
Vin Diesel should come and fund the development and set them a deadline….
And kick Brussard in the face.
I believe that even vending machines would be usable.
How many games today can boast that????!!!!!!!