After The Past 12 Years, Duke Nukem Forever Cancelled/3D Realms Shuts Down

[Dissidia]

Veteran games developer 3D Realms has closed down because of a lack of funds.

Founded in 1987, the firm popularised the concept of shareware gaming and published the seminal Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein 3D first-person shooters.

The company was working on a follow-up title, Duke Nukem Forever, which after being in development for 12 years has become the object of industry derision.

Publisher Take-Two says it will no longer fund development of the game but retains rights to the title.

"We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Take-Two's Alan Lewis in a statement.

There has been no official comment from 3D Realms, other than a forum posting from the company's webmaster, Joe Siegler, who said: "It's not a marketing thing. It's true. I have nothing further to say at this time."

Other companies with links to 3D Realms or the Duke Nukem series were quick to distance themselves.

   
Duke Nukem Forever was the most aptly named title in the history of games
Guardian games writer Steve Boxer

In a posting on Twitter, Apogee Software said it was "officially not affected by the situation at 3DRealms".

"Development of the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned and further announcements about upcoming games will be made in the near future," the statement added.

Guardian newspaper games writer Steve Boxer said it was astonishing 3D Realms had not finished the game after more than a decade of development.

"It would have been nice to see another Duke Nukem game, but given they had more than 12 years it's just incompetence of the highest order.

"3D Realms made some great games in the past, but they got overtaken by the 21st Century.

"Sadly, Duke Nukem Forever was the most aptly named title in the history of games. Now, it's just Duke Nukem Never."

I remember I was playing Duke Nukem 3D at the time back in 1996, running Windows 95, we all had our lovely 56k modems and 2 MB of RAM on our Hardrives. When I heard about Duke Nukem Forever in 1997, I was hyped, but now 12 years later, me, I became 20 years old, 3D Realms closes. I'm very sad that Duke Nukem Forever is cancelled, but seriously, they should've released this freakin' game since 1998 ::. But damn this sucks the company had to shut down though.

[Weapon x program]

I m gonna cry, i will miss you duke 

[Random Regular]

Nooooooooooooo
I remeber I played Duke Nukem on my old psx like 11 years ago (12? )
I know the graphics sucked hard but in that time it was awesome.


Well 3D Realms, Thats a nice way to finish the Duke Nukem series.
But I can't blame them..

[Ohsky]

f**k them, they shouldnt be teasing people for over a decade, f**k them!

[KudosForce]

Well, it certainly lived up to its title, unlike a certain fantasy series whose name doesn't need to be said.

It's better to have a DS trilogy than no new entries to the series at all. Making a guest appearance in the next Super Smash Bros. would do Duke a LOT of favors.

Still, it's disappointing to hear this.

[[Asian-Jesus]]

f**k them, they shouldnt be teasing people for over a decade, f**k them!

Pssh, you just don't understand at all.

Duke Nukem Forever is the greatest injoke in the entire video game industry.

[Error Macro]

Hence the "Forever" in the title.  Seems like the game would take FOREVER to be released.

[Weapon x program]

Hence the "Forever" in the title.  Seems like the game would take FOREVER to be released.

NICE JOKE 

[Nutty-Da-Kid]

Nooooooooooooo
I remeber I played Duke Nukem on my old psx like 11 years ago (12? )
I know the graphics sucked hard but in that time it was awesome.


Well 3D Realms, Thats a nice way to finish the Duke Nukem series.
But I can't blame them..

Lol same my dad use to be obssessed with duke nukem back in the day i remember i broke his duke nukem he was mad at me for hella long..

[Violent Ken Masters]

Yeah usually when they take a long time to make a game you can kind of tell it's going to be canceled. Like how StarCraft Ghost kept switching from producer to producer, they just put themselves in a hole. Eidos almost killed off Tomb Raider with that first ps2 game, however Eidos' problems at the time led to the death of the Fear Effect series.

It's really a shame when games get canceled because the creators are being a lil indecisive about what they should do.

[xPreatorianx]

Thats gay they even said on a duke nukem site that they were still planning and developing stuff. I loved Duke nukem even better then I love the Doom series. I cannot believe that they took 12 years just to go bankrupt and let duke hang basically. I saw some screens and everything looked awesome especially the strip bar that the duke nukem series is known for!  Anyways guess they finally put it to rest. Hopefully someone will continue where they left off or create a duke nukem that far surpasses Duke Nukem Forever.

Thats the second game that needs a next gen sequel. The first being Killer instinct I still wish for the day to come when rare or someone that bought the license off of rare to announce a Killer instinct 3.

Im a sad panda now.... May Duke nukem Rest in Peace....My closest child hood friend.

[Tenspeed]

I'm keeping the faith. you never know who might pick up the title, or whatnot.

always bet on duke.

[Nutty-Da-Kid]

Yeah usually when they take a long time to make a game you can kind of tell it's going to be canceled. Like how StarCraft Ghost kept switching from producer to producer, they just put themselves in a hole. Eidos almost killed off Tomb Raider with that first ps2 game, however Eidos' problems at the time led to the death of the Fear Effect series.

It's really a shame when games get canceled because the creators are being a lil indecisive about what they should do.

u guys be psychic i know this is random but i swear i was in the shower yesterday thinking dam i wonder wat ever happened to da fear effect series i remember i had the first couple of fear effect's on ps1 back in 2001 but i never really got around to playing them.

[Magma MK-II]

Thats the second game that needs a next gen sequel. The first being Killer instinct I still wish for the day to come when rare or someone that bought the license off of rare to announce a Killer instinct 3.

Seconded.

[b.easy]

Here's a summary of the entire game, level-by-level. It talks about the weapons and gameplay concepts, too.

http://www.nofrag.com/images/00434d/

It actually sounded like a pretty fun game.

[KudosForce]

Here's a summary of the entire game, level-by-level. It talks about the weapons and gameplay concepts, too.

http://www.nofrag.com/images/00434d/

It actually sounded like a pretty fun game.

The bit with Duke scoring with the Holsom twins while playing his own video game sounds like an epic win. 

[Tenspeed]

dunno if anyone saw this or not, but...
http://kotaku.com/5247608/duke-nukem-forever-gameplay-footage

[xPreatorianx]

Thanks for that vid I also came accross vast amounts of resources from DNF. Some guy on a warez forum uploaded leaked screenshots of of 3D relms model assets and gameplay footage from DNF. I mean they even went as far as modeling and skinning a pod girl (topless btw). You know those girls that had the alien grime all over and they were naked and kept saying kill me in Duke 3D. Well they were fully mapped/skinned/modeled. Also most of the enemies/levels/weapons were skinned and modeled aswell. From all the screenshots it looked like they were only another year from an actual release date.

If someone gets all the models/codes from 3D realms they can have the game out in no longer then 2 years. I mean from all the screenshots I literally just obtained in the last 30 minutes it looked damn near complete.

I mean some of the enemies in the game look amazing. If anyone wants all the stuff I will upload them but I need to get the guy to reupload the gameplay footage because those got corrupted. But the screenshots are fully intact and look amazing.

Small sample of what I got : 56 K warning

(click to show/hide)

(click to show/hide)

EDIT2: BTW the holsom twins have been modeled but not skinned.

[Violent Ken Masters]

dunno if anyone saw this or not, but...
http://kotaku.com/5247608/duke-nukem-forever-gameplay-footage

Damn, I just watched that and that looks cool as hell. That's a real shame it got canceled. T_T

[Dissidia]

Duke Nukem Forever a publicity stunt now?

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/695479/Is-The-Duke-Nukem-Forever-Cancellation-A-Huge-Publicity-Stunt.html

[Violent Ken Masters]

I don't really think it is. I mean Duke has a huge fan base as it is. If they wanted to draw attention to the game, gametrailers is probably the best place to go. If it is, I don't care, I just want the game to come out.

[Jelux Da Casual]

Latest in the rumor mill is that 3DRealms shut down because the game is done and it planned to have a huge announcement about at E3 this year.

This is highly possible because a similar case happened late last year with Ensemble Studios. After Halo Wars was finished, the studio was shut down.

[.:K.I.N.G:.]

it will get picked up by a different publisher sooner or later, that's if it isn't already finished and ready for a release.

[xPreatorianx]

Well like I said by all the screenshots/assets and leaked video's it looked damn near completion. Thats why im saying if it is not already completed another year or 2 and it will be completed with basically everyone working 12-16 hour shifts and polishing the heck out of it.

[Jelux Da Casual]

Here's a statement from someone claiming to work at 3DRealms.

"Hi guys, I'm sat behind 4 proxys right now because I'm about to reval some very sensitive information at risk of being fired. I work at 3DRealms and first, no I'm not a troll. Second Duke Nukem Forever is not cancelled in any way, shape, or form. We have not had out funding pulled, TakeTwo just wants E3 to be big this year. The game is DONE. That's right it's done and the final version will have a demo at E3."

This was reported on this week's SideScrollers on Screwattack.com, however it was not reported on Hard News due to the fact that source of the post was from 4Chan.