EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: 3drealms
Did you enjoy 3D Realms and Human Head’s sci-fi first-person shooter, Prey, in 2006? If you did, you’re in for a treat because a sequel to the wall-walking, portal-featuring, mind-bending game has been (tentatively) revealed.
Reports (and an image) have hit the ‘net outing the existence of Prey 2, thanks to a cover story soon to appear in the pages of French game magazine, Joystick, with the title reading (translated by NoFrag):
“Nobody was expecting it, but that’s going to change!”
This past week, an amazing piece of news emerged: The long-suffering, oft-delayed, 12-years in the making first-person shooter Duke Nukem Forever will in fact see the light of day thanks to Gearbox Software (Borderlands, Brothers in Arms).
The studio struck a deal with Duke Nukem franchise creators and developers 3D Realms and has not only picked up where that company left off on Duke Nukem Forever, aiming to deliver a completed game sometime in 2011, but Gearbox has also acquired the intellectual property rights to the brand as well.
Following the awesome news that Duke Nukem Forever will indeed see the light of day thanks to the development efforts of Gearbox Software (Borderlands, Brothers in Arms), it’s additionally been announced that Gearbox has acquired the full intellectual property rights to the Duke Nukem brand.
This includes Duke Nukem Forever and “all future projects in a cooperative deal made with 3D Realms.”
President of Gearbox, Randy Pitchford spoke about the significance of Duke Nukem to him and his studio:
[Update 2] Added extreme shaky cam footage of people playing Duke Nukem Forever at PAX Prime, below: [End of Update 2]
[Update 1] More information emerging from PAX Prime regarding Duke Nukem Forever added a little further below. [End of Update 1]
The rumours were true! Gearbox Software will indeed complete development on 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem Forever, and pick up where that studio left off.
Join us now as we journey into a world of magic and whimsy. A land jostling and heated with madness and chaos. A kingdom twisted and warped by regurgitated lies, half-truths and mirrored reality, all moulded into a lonesome form that would send you on a voyage of insanity with a single blink of its crusted eye.
Welcome to… ‘The Rumour Zone.’
It appears as though 3D Realms and publishing duo Take-Two/2K Games have both decided to drop the on-going lawsuit involving the embattled independent developer’s long-in-development first-person shooter, Duke Nukem Forever.
A whole truckload of new screenshots for the currently defunct Duke Nukem Forever has emerged from the ether, while a new gameplay video has also come to the surface to give would-be gamers a glimpse of what 3D Realms were cooking up, before the studio ran into financial difficulties and was forced to let its staff go.
Plans are still afoot to complete Duke Nukem Forever, if 3D Realms’ George Broussard and Scott Miller have anything to say about it, but until the pair’s legal wrangling with Take-Two is over, they can’t utter a word.
For now, you can enjoy a gameplay video and some ‘released’ screenshots from undeterminable eras of development on Duke Nukem Forever, showing areas, scenarios and gameplay that, in my mind, would have easily found an audience in amongst other big name first-person shooters today.
After the highly publicised closure of 3D Realms two weeks ago, and the subsequent news that Take-Two, the publishing rights holder for the perpetually in development Duke Nukem Forever, had filed a lawsuit against 3D Realms for not producing a game after the publisher’s $12 million investment, 3D Realms’ CEO, big man George Broussard, has finally released a public statement to quell the tide of angry, disappointed and indifferent fans:
“Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing. 3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise.
“Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6, while we regroup as a company.
“While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.”
Broussard then goes on to provide his side of the Take-Two $12 million story, revealing that, not only has 3D Realms never directly received any money from Take-Two for the development of Duke Nukem Forever, but the $12 million in question was paid to the now defunct GT Interactive, 3D Realms’ publishing partner at the time.
Those of you hoping for a resolution to the Duke Nukem Forever ‘situation’ may want to lower your expectations for the game to be released any time soon, if ever.
Take-Two, owner of the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever, has only gone and sued Apogee Software Ltd. (3D Realms’ legal name) over their failure to produce the game that has been in development for twelve years, having seen continually promised release dates come and go without a result.
From the complaint filed by Take-Two in a state court in Manhattan recently: “Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever. Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward comp[l]eting development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever.”
It has also been revealed that in 2000, Take-Two paid $12 million for the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever, despite a statement to the contrary released shortly after the news that 3D Realms would be shut down, and their employees laid off.
Take-Two is apparently now trying to reclaim the $12 million that they had provided to 3D Realms, after the developer’s failure to fulfil its obligations to produce Duke Nukem Forever.
It’s being widely reported that 3D Realms, developer of the classic game franchise, Duke Nukem, has closed its doors and let its staff go, after an apparent lack of funding for their latest project, Duke Nukem Forever, now having been in development for twelve years.
Sources told Gamasutra that the studio will be fully shut down by the end of the week.
Work on the announced Duke Nukem Trilogy game for the DS and PSP, however, currently in development at Deep Silver and overseen by the resurrected Apogee, is still continuing as planned.
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