Don't Call It A Comeback: 3D Realms' Crowd-Funded FPS
I wanted to snarkily write '3D Realms' in the title, but when I added the apostrophe it looked like '3D Realms'' and everyone would have thought I'd just forgotten what type of speech mark I was using. Anyway! The 3D Realms name is indeed back, even if it's currently somewhat unclear as to whether it's anything more than a name at present. The Duke Nukem dev closed its doors after too many years and too much money spent creating the horrible piss-mountain that was Duke Nukem Forever, but owners including Scott Miller and George Broussard kept some intangible measure of it alive afterwards. And so it is that 3D Realms' name is attached to crowd-funded, post-apocalyptic shooter Earth No More.
Said crowd-funding is happening via brand new service Gambitious, which is a Euro-focused take on what Kickstarter's up to. The aforementioned Miller was involved in Gambitious' creation. It doesn't appear that 3DR themselves (whatever they now are) will be singlehandedly developing Earth No More, or perhaps even at all - Eurogamer cite a source as saying a mystery third-party dev will be on-board, likely in a similar capacity to how Human Head made Prey 2 but 3DR got many of the bragging rights/money. (The same was also true of Max Payne 1 and Remedy).
So it could be anyone actually making this thing, and all we know about it so far is this following summary: "Mankind's relentless destruction of Earth awakens a biological response from deep within the planet's crust that threatens an environmental apocalypse." The project's listed as 'coming soon' on Gambitious, rather than being open to funding already, but a handful of other games are waiting for your potential pledge - including TRAIN FEVER. TRAIN FEVER!
Also listed as upcoming on Gambitious is Firefly's Stronghold Crusader 2. Let's hope this new independence marks Firefly's return to form after the disappointing Stronghold 3.
A couple of other things worth mentioning about Gambitious: one, being Euro-centric, you pledge in Euros rather than Ameri-bucks.
Two, it's not purely about pledges, and also allows investors to spend mega-money buying equity in projects they reckon might be goers. So, you could be an investor in something: which could, ultimately, result in dividends and/or involvement in the business plan. Interesting: a new model for sure, and doubtless rife with both opportunity and risk. Find out more about that side of things here.