Duke Nukem Forever developer shuts its doors

Any longtime fan of PC gaming is likely familiar with the saga of Duke Nukem Forever. Announced by developer 3D Realms in April of 1997, Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to be the sequel to 1996's hit first-person shooter Duke Nukem 3D. After 12 years in development, and 3D Realms' continued insistence that it was still working on the game, gaming news site Shacknews reported Wednesday night that 3D Realms has shut its doors.

Duke Nukem in his most recent incarnation.

(Credit: 3DRealms)

An almost annual winner of Wired's Vaporware Awards, Duke Nukem Forever had at least two wholesale 3D engine changes and two different publishers throughout its development. Screenshots, video, and the occasional online job posting trickled out from 3D Realms every few years, maintaining fans' hope that the Duke Nukem Forever would one day be finished.

Despite those teases, Duke Nukem Forever has become an industry-wide joke for its seemingly infinite development cycle. Some patient gamers may be sad to apparently lose the prospect of playing Duke Nukem Forever some day; anyone who's kept up with Duke's ongoing development will surely miss being able to use it as a punchline.

See Duke Nukem demos on Download.com.

[grissomb]

And here I thought THIS was going to be THE year...

[gimpydwarf]

A multi million dollar franchise down the toilet. Too Bad. It's obvious that this company shot itself in the foot by not being able to make decisions and sticking to them. Even an expansion with new levels of the DN3D game would have sold well. Well Duke, R.I.P.

[Renegade Knight]

Yup. Better 80% perfect with a good story line (and action) than 100% right at 10x the expence.

[DMBoricua]

:'(...... There could still be hope though right!?? Maybe some other company continuing the project? This just makes me sad :( Duke is a legend!! There has to be a next game!!

[Mrsone]

I agree with you. This actually sounds like the route that Splinter Cell is going down. So sad because these games would have worked. Another Duke Nukem would have sold well. But instead, the company made themselves get stuck in developer's hell and never got out. Shame.

[cmarzare]

i have a vague feeling that some other more intelligent company can get this off the ground...Valve anyone????

[ZetaZeta_]

That would fill me with joyous glee.

At the very least I wish they would open DN4ever's source and let a community keep developing it (if they're never going to use it). This seems incredibly unlikely though.

[t69broken]

sounds like the Guns N Roses album that just came out. Which if you look at that after the over decade of a wait the game probably wouldn't have been as good

[Gormanilius]

thats EXACTLY what I was thinking.
Would have been ironic to make the new GnR album D4E official soundtrack

[cidman2001]

You mean, forever isn't really forever? What a drag.....

[ZetaZeta_]

If it had been released, then it wouldn't have been forever. Now it truly is forever.
:'(

[dreamhunk]

I blames this console geration and consoles for the death of Nuke Nukem! All the pc game devs are doing fine in this ression. All the console game devs are going bankuprt because of high produstion costs.

[Tedders85]

Wow, that is some bad spelling. You didn't even spell Duke Nukem right! Although, Nuke Nukem is kinda funny when you think about it.

[HomerJayRI]

I'm not giving up hope!

[punisher1001]

They should rename it to, "Duke Nukem Never"

[NervClaX]

Step 1: Create game company
Step 2: Claim to have brilliant game "in development"
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit

No one, and I mean NO ONE from 3D Realms should be allowed to find work in the gaming industry again. Never Forget Duke Nukem Forever. 05-06-09

[crusadex]

R.I.P Duke Nukem.....Go haunt your devs now.....Hm that could be a movie.....The ghost of Christmas duke-when it's done......he he.

[crusadex]

Lol,I got banned from 3drealms forums for syaing,"If i had began learning game development in 1997 i could have finished DNF years ago on my own.Why don't you send the game to a qaulity company such as Valve or Bungie who can at least finish a product."
I suspect since 2K has the rights to the game they will send it out to be finished if there is even enough to finish.It will probably be a much better offering that the "WHEN IT"S DONE" crowd could have given us.Sad to see Prey go too,but even after 11 years in dev they could have done much better.
HE HE bye bye 3Drealms,we won't remember you soon.

[Lerianis3]

I have to agree. The fact is that even WORKING BY MYSELF I could have finished DN4EVER in less than 4 years..... what was TAKING THEM SO LONG!

[akljsdj]

If Partialy Finished Someone Could Take Over

[HowardLive]

A possible lesson from this cautionary tale?

In the words of Voltaire, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

[justinf79]

Ahahahah, this cracks me up actually. Maybe they could have sold the franchise to another game company to work on?

[ikcizokm]

@crusadex, that cracks me up. But it's absolutely true. We've got guys building amazingly detailed and immersing games from their dorm rooms or basements, in their spare time and on their own. And yet a "professional" game studio can't crank out one FPS (which is arguably one of the easiest games to develop these days, given the glut of contenders) for TWELVE YEARS?

Someone will pick up the Duke franchise, though. If anything, George Broussard will want to sell it so he can finance the purchase of additional pork rinds and Mountain Dew.

[BenFlavoredCandy]

I was just as excited for DNF as I was for Team Fortress 2. At least I got one of them eventually...

[paulimusmaximus]

Eh, they waited too long anyway. I might have been excited about this even 5 years ago, but come on, I haven't played Duke Nukem 3d since the last century anyway, I don't even remember the storyline.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Who cares ? Serious Sam can kick hiss ass !

[Satviewer2000]

As is often the case, the "company" is made up of a dozen computer programmers who have either quit and started up their own companies, or joined some other company that pays better. I suppose 3D Realms still own the rights to the Duke Nukem brand name, so no other company can make a game by this name unless it buys the rights to it. But by the time that happens, it'll probably be a case of the customers not even knowing who Duke Nukem is anymore, as it will have been so long since the last game came out.

[rpen25]

I wouldn't be surprised if they sold the franchise to EA or some other large conglomerate video game company to make some final $$ off of it. I can actually see EA or Ubisoft buying the rights and develop it themselves if there were enough demand for it.

[Zinkoping]

Well the name is Duke Nukem Forever . If you shorten it , it will become DNF . And DNF of course means "Didn't Finish" :P