Ex-3D Realms Head Lost "$20-30 Million" on Duke Nukem Forever

[Andy Chalk]

Ex-3D Realms Head Lost "$20-30 Million" on Duke Nukem Forever

Gearbox Software honcho Randy Pitchford estimates that 3D Realms co-founder George Broussard lost $20-30 million of his own money trying to finish Duke Nukem Forever [http://www.amazon.com/Duke-Nukem-Forever-Pc/dp/B002I0JAJ2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286462448&sr=8-1].

"There was bad news in May 2009. You all saw the stories; 3D Realms was shutting down [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/91526-Updated-3D-Realms-Shutting-Down], Duke was dead," Pitchford said this morning, reflecting on the end of 3D Realms' long, ugly and futile effort to get Duke Nukem Forever out the door.

"I spoke to George Broussard and he said, 'Randy, this is the worst day of my life,' but you could hear in his voice there was more," he continued. "This was 12 years of his life... Try and imagine what you've achieved in 12 years. Gearbox [http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/] has made 15 games in that time."

Nor is time the only thing Broussard lost to the Duke Nukem escapade; an awful lot of money went down the drain too. "George Broussard is not a poor man but I would estimate that he lost 20 to 30 million dollars of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever. I don't care who you are, that's a hell of a lot of money," Pitchford said. "He was committed to Duke to the point of insanity... and now Duke was dead."

"He decided he would rather have it burn than have a bad version of the game come out," he added.

That's all well and good, but that in the end, neither happened: Duke Nukem Forever didn't come out but 3D Realms [http://www.3drealms.com/] kept sputtering along, doing God knows what - while Gearbox, let us not forget, was busy punching out more than a dozen games. It's unfortunate for Broussard that he sunk that much money into a pit, but it just makes the question of what happened even more pressing. All that time, all those millions upon millions of investment funds and Broussard's own money: Where did it all go?

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=268568?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS]


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[Wakefield]

I feel sorry for the guy. Even though that maybe wasn't the smartest business decision.

 

[Bretty]

Once they release the game it would be really cool to see what they did, sort of like a bonus on the DVD or something.

I think it is sad that you can waste 12 years of your life, not to mention the money, and have literaly nothing to show for it.

Respect to the man for his standards though, I wish a few current developers had the good release or burn attitude.

 

[JoJo]

20 to 30 million dollars can buy a lot of crack!

 

[The Rockerfly]

There must be something seriously wrong with 3D realms. Games take a long time like Half 2 Episode 3 but the there is Duke Nukem Forever. I don't care how obsessive you are about design, no game should take 12 years to design.

Also, what the fuck were the budgeting comity and the share holders doing for 12 yeas, not saying "finish the fucking game"?

It wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't quality issues involved but legal issues and serious incompetence in the company. Any director with sanity would have dropped an unfinished game by about 3 years

 

[Wicky_42]

hah, if they had $20-30 mill dropped on the, I would have liked to be on that dev team!

 

[Irridium]

It went to pony rides of course.

The best pony rides in the world.

 

[HentMas]

Once they release the game it would be really cool to see what they did, sort of like a bonus on the DVD or something.

I think it is sad that you can waste 12 years of your life, not to mention the money, and have literaly nothing to show for it.

Respect to the man for his standards though, I wish a few current developers had the good release or burn attitude.

what?? you seriously want to see a bunch of guys sleeping, staring at brightly collored pictures and giving each other piggy rides???

come on!!

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well "where did that money go" is a good question to ask the game industry in general since they are close lipped about it. When I sit here and criticize the industry that is one of the first questions I tend to bring up, along with questioning how much these guys pay themselves out of that money, since those huge budgets are how they justify keeping games so expensive for us consumers and the need to keep trying to gouge more and more money.

Given that this information isn't reliably released, it's not surprising a producer got bilked for millions due to the blinders, especially if he was both a fanatic about a product, and never bothered to periodically check with the people he was paying to see what they were actually doing while continueing to pass out checks.

In the case of Duke Nukem, I've been wondering if the press involved might have been part of a bigger game, making it look like there is some kind of legal wrangling going on, where that money was being used for something other than game development. I have no idea what of course, and it's ridiculously paranoid, but when I think of 30 million disappearing with little more than some whining and a song and dance, I think of funding some kind of goverment operation or whatever... as silly as that might sound.

Still, it will be kind of cool if we ever do get some reasonable answers to this, since like most games the meat of the budget is going to go to human resources. Despite going out of business I can't help but wonder what the personal bank accounts of some of those 3d realms guys look like.

 

[Javex]

"That's a lotta hooch!"... Poor guy. That's a lot of time and money for literally nothing.

 

[gl1koz3]

With creativity... sometimes things just click. Sometimes they don't. I guess this is the case where it MUST click (or die), but it struck the unclick note very early.

The thing must have been polished to hell and back... it just better be.

 

[Callate]

So... What happened?! It's a crying shame to lose 12 years of your life and 20-30 million dollars, no question. But I can't exactly give my unreserved sympathies; I'm pretty sure that I could get something out the door, given twelve years and twenty million dollars.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Nor is time the old thing Broussard lost to the Duke Nukem escapade;

Pretty sure that was meant to read "only", not old.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Well, that puts it into a slightly new perspective.

Of course, the demise of Duke Nukem Forever is not that tragic, but a developer I like trying to get a game finished and losing all of his own money is.

So, rejoice, George, it is coming out. And it's not going to be worth it.

 

[EHKOS]

After seeing that footage with Pitchford goofing off in front of the screen, I really want to know. How much did Gearbox do and how much was done by 3D Realms?

 

[Jared]

Wow o.o I have major respect for him using that much money to get it off the ground - but question is where did it all go!?