3D Realms is closed

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DirgE Almighty

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3D Realms, independent developer of the Duke Nukem action franchise, is closing its doors and its employees being let go, according to multiple industry sources.

Formed over twenty years ago as Apogee Software and located in Garland, Texas, 3D Realms was privately owned and run by Scott Miller and George Broussard. It served as developer of the three main Duke Nukem games and as publisher of many more.

For more than a decade, 3D Realms has notoriously been working on various iterations of Duke Nukem Forever, its sequel to the classic FPS Duke Nukem 3D. Forever was announced in 1997, and saw repeated delays.

In the last few years, news about the game began to emerge more frequently, and small screenshots and development tidbits were occasionally released.

Recently, 3D Realms also produced the two Max Payne games by Remedy Entertainment, published Human Head Studios' Prey, and brought Duke Nukem 3D to Xbox Live Arcade
 
wordsmith

wordsmith

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May 1, 2008
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copypasta of what I wrote on another forum:

We are gathered here today to acknowledge the passing of the game developer Apogee Software Ltd, known to many as "3D Realms".

3D Realms passed into liquidation on the 6th day of May, 2009. 3D realms was best known for it's development of the most well known piece of vaporware, Duke Nukem Forever.

3D Realms came into being when PC gaming itself was being developed. Apogee Software Ltd. were the first company to truly listen to their customers, giving extra content and otherwise un-obtainable information to those who helped them in their quest for a "perfect game".

Apogee hit gold when their game Terminal Velocity (released under the division name "3D Realms", signifying what type of game it was) was released in 1994, and this success helped to launch their less popular series "Duke Nukem" (released as "Duke Nukum" for copyright reasons), a series that had been released in 1991 to relatively lukewarm reception. A year before Terminal Velocity was released, Duke Nukem II was greeted with a similarly lackluster sales rate.

3D studios made Duke Nukem truly famous with their (now arcade classic) Duke Nukem 3D. With this success, they began to release further sequels, tallying a huge number of games.

Fast forwarding to 6 months ago, the developers had all but dried up. Their flagship game was being delayed further and further, and nailing down a release date for the infamous Duke Nukem Forever became somewhat of a joke amongst the gaming fraternity, as many noticed that the initials "DNF" also stood for "Did Not Finish" in racing terminology. The development continued slowly and surely, with the 3D Realms developers continuing to release new screenshots (usually of the game in it's new engine- The game was moving so slowly, the development of whole ENGINES took a fraction of the game development time) and new gameplay trailers.

Yesterday, 3D Realms announced that they were no longer trading, and as such would no longer be developing Duke Nukem Forever, and any licenses of ownership were to go to it's parent company, Take Two Interactive Software (the parent company of many developers, including Rockstar and 2K- the developers of the GTA series and Bioshock respectively).

R.I.P. 3D Realms, 16th July 1994 - 7th May 2009.

You will be missed.
 
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AdmiralWolverineLightningbolt

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Aug 13, 2008
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truly duke nukem forever was not meant for this world - it will be missed

(funny thought i just had, i wonder if theyve known dn:f wasnt gonna be released for a while (ie a few years) and all those teasers were just fuck yous from the develope or something)
 
iJosh

iJosh

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</3

Why would they do this to us.

Duke Nukem, You will be missed greatly.
 
Weaver

Weaver

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Apr 28, 2008
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okay guys, this is like the 20th thread on this (including an official escapist news post). Please stop.
 
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mcx

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JWAN said:
mcx said:
Serves them right.
Click to expand...
you have no soul
Click to expand...
They have teased ous with the game for years and I'm fed up with it. Seriously they have been developeing it for 13 years and did anyone think that they were ever going to finish it?

Anyway good bye Duke, you piece of vaporware.
 
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wild_quinine

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Mar 18, 2008
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wordsmith said:
Yesterday, 3D Realms announced that they were no longer trading, and as such would no longer be developing Duke Nukem Forever, and any licenses of ownership were to go to it's parent company, Take Two Interactive Software
Click to expand...
As far as I'm aware, the above is just utterly, completely wrong.

3DRealms are (were?) a privately owned company, and have no 'parents' as such. Take Two have a license to distribute Duke Nukem Forever, but absolutely no ownership over Duke Nukem, or 3DRealms, whatsoever.

End of story, unless someone has facts otherwise.
 
JWAN

JWAN

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Dec 27, 2008
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mcx said:
JWAN said:
mcx said:
Serves them right.
Click to expand...
you have no soul
Click to expand...
They have teased ous with the game for years and I'm fed up with it. Seriously they have been developeing it for 13 years and did anyone think that they were ever going to finish it?

Anyway good bye Duke, you piece of vaporware.
Click to expand...
[ins]sarcasm[/ins]
 
LazerLuger

LazerLuger

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Mar 16, 2009
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And nothing of value was lost...

Honestly, I think Duke Nukem Forever was a hoax, the greatest troll in video gaming history. Other games would have monthly screenshots and developer journals, but DNF? Absolutely nothing. There never was a Duke Nukem Forever. Good riddance.

Do feel sorry about the developers that lost their jobs though.
 
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