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Massive DNF Media Page Coming Soon
I just wanted to announce that we've retrieved a lot of different Duke Nukem Forever screenshots/videos/concept art and we'll be posting them up on a separate page soon. We also expect to see more media coming out--I think the fans deserve it. Keep checking back, and know that the community will thrive and that Duke will remain alive no matter what.
Farewell From 3D Realms
FYI, I would wager that this photo was taken BEFORE the shut down announcement. I know many of you are wondering why some of these guys are smiling after having lost their jobs, and hopefully now it makes a little more sense.
Edit: Joe has informed me that the photo was actually taken today around 6 PM Texas time.
SITTING L-R: Chris Cummings, Randy Forsyth, David Riegel, Pat Jones, Pete Knepley, Jay Brushwood, Dave Ratti, George Broussard, Allen Blum, Chris DeSimone, Brian Hook (pink tie), Scott MacLean, Rob "MacGuvyer" Faison, Andrew "Sonic" Kershner, Bryan Turner, Steve Blackburn, Kaiser the dog
STANDING L-R: Brian Lawson, John Pollard, James Houska, Andrew Baker, Eric Von Rothkirch, Chris Skelton, Mark Skelton, Gary Buchanan, Kevin Green, Joe Siegler, Rick Huenick, Chris Smith, Ben "Too Happy" Eoff, Trammell "T-ray" Isaac, David Carter, Bryan Brewer, Layne Johnson, Brad Jacobs, John Anderson
Also, here is a page that before right now was a private page, I had it only for internal staff. I've removed that restriction, it doesn't much matter now. It's organized by "function", and within those sections by service time.
http://www.3drealms.com/bio/staff/index.html
(Source)
For more information, please read the news item below this one.
Here´s What´s Going On
One of our admins here, Lead, wrote this up:
If all the bits and pieces mentioned in various places (true or not) were put together it would go something like this:
- George and Scott own equal parts of 3D Realms.
- DNF taking forever to make costs tons of money.
- Scott who is arguably the smarter businessman gets tired of this over time and doesn't want to dump his money into it anymore.
- Scott looks to other things like Radar Group and newly launched Apogee Software LLC and leaves 3D Realms in Georges hands.
- Scott is still technically a manager at 3D Realms but is effectively done with 3D Realms at that point.
- Scott is now free to run companies as he sees fit without dealing with a 50% partner.
- A year or so later George wasn't able to handle it, especially with lack of Scott's personal and financial cooperation.
- Eventually funds begin to run low.
- Since Scott is out, and so is money, George drives out to California to show Take 2 the game in an attempt to wow them into funding development to finish DNF.
- Vague references were made to Take 2 possibly having (verbally) promising money, but didn't deliver.
- When George requested the $5 million from Take 2 so DNF development could be funded.
- Take 2 counter-offered with giving 3D Realms $30 million instead.... *IF*3D Realms sells all rights to the Duke IP. (currently Take2's only has publishing rights)
- George\They refuse this and keep the Duke IP, instead shutting down the company and going on life support.
- The purpose of not selling the IP is because the Duke IP still has the potential to make money, and it is their trademark. It would be like iD selling the Doom IP.
- George is said to have previously went to iD Software and Epic in an attempt to make a deal with funding for them, but is turned down.
- ..was also said to still have plans to contact other companies to make similar requests.
- A company in a better position to spend $5 million, such as EA or Microsoft are seen as the most likely candidates for possibly investing in saving DNF.
Unofficial DNF Screenshots Released
Let me confirm first that 3D Realms is defunct. This is not a marketing hoax, gimmick, or whatever else you want to call it. 3D Realms will exist now only as a legal entity between its founders, Scott Miller and George Broussard. All employees have been let go, and we wish them the best.
That being said, former art director "Tramell Isaac" from 3D Realms has released some unofficial screenshots from the game:
I'm an Art Director looking for a great project/team/opportunity. I'm hopeful that I will land somewhere soon.
Enjoy the previously unreleased DNF shots below.
The screenshots above show off the Hoover Dam, the EDF base, and the tunnel infestations by alien forces.
Here's a casino in Duke Nukem Forever we may never get to visit:
Frankly, at this point I think the fans deserve something, and this will have to do for now. I reckon the rights to the game will be sold to a company like EA, and we'll eventually see it get released that way. Rest assured that the franchise is too big to die.
This is speculation on my part, but I don't think 3D Realms is in a state to be able to follow through with its development now that the entire company has fallen apart. We are still awaiting an official statement from Scott Miller or George Broussard.
3D Realms Shutting Down?
- 5/07/09: BBC Confirms 3D Realms as defunct. Video game journalist Geoff Keighley suggests DNF has been put on hold, and that Prey 2 will not be affected because Radar Group is still operational.
- The resurrected Apogee Software and its Duke Nukem trilogy will NOT be affected.
- The faith of Duke Nukem Forever is unknown, but we are optimistic.
- From Voodoo Extreme: "Scott Maclean and Andrew Baker, two 3D Realms level designers, have both modified their LinkedIn employment histories today to show that they are no longer in the employ of the Duke Nukem Forever developer. Additionally, numerous staffers from the studio have begun 'recommending' one another on the industry networking site."
We are aware that we've just had a SURGE of visitors coming to this website. Our response is processing on Youtube and should be available shortly:
Sources:
http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=58519
"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 VP of communications Alan Lewis in a prepared statement.
"In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever," he added.
Other sources:
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=52307
http://twitter.com/adambromell/statuses/1721615247
You can also discuss this news story on our forums.
Introducing the New(er) Duke4.net!
Surely, you remember the last time we had a style update. RedSplat works everyday to make the site shinier, and today he's ready to present us with his latest revision of the Duke4.net theme. Clear your cache (Control+F5 twice) and you'll instantly notice some of the changes. Our dynamic menu is more stylish, as is the right column of the site. There's much more color in play, and news titles are easier to read. And of course, as RedSplat says, the red bars on the sides of our news items mean that we are on "red alert" for DNF media. Before you jump to any conclusions, we assure you that this is absolutely wishful thinking on our part, but if you've been following our news lately, you'll see that things MIGHT be looking up just a bit.
In the accompanied thumbnail, you'll be able to see a large picture of the website as it looked before the style revision. We archive every graphical milestone for historical purposes, and this week's small improvement is no exception.
Enjoy the new(er) Duke4.net!
12 Years!!
Today marks the 12th anniversary of the announcement of Duke Nukem Forever. Some games have been known to take a long time to develop, but over the years Duke Nukem Forever has become virtually synonymous with vaporware and has been the object of many jokes as well skepticism on the part of many as to whether or not it will be released at all. The development time has become so long that time passed since certain events within its development match or even surpass the entire development time of other games. For instance, September 14th of this year will mark the 5th anniversary of the announcement that 3D Realms changed the games physics engine to Meqon.
You may ask what in the world could be taking so long. There are a number of reasons for that. George Broussard, the project leader, has chimed in on that issue from time to time over the years:
Scott Miller, the CEO of 3D Realms has also given some comments on this issue, here is a fairly recent one:
Is there then anything at all to be optimistic about? Well what people consider to be good news or good enough news varies alot from person to person. But certainly there have been some quotes in the last year or so that have given rise to optimism at least among some people in the game's fan community, here are two examples:
For more information see this thread in our forums.
Laying Low But Looking to Unveil
Looks like no one noticed this until now, but IGN recently posted an article about DNF and Dr. Dre. Yeah, it's a silly thing to relate the two topics, but it's gotta do something with them both being victim to delay. There's nothing notable written except this quote that NukemDave found on there:
Duke's comin' Straight Outta Compton! It's time to kick ass and smoke weed!
3D Realms Closes Out Development Milestone
Well, sorta. I'm going to assume this is a reference to the progress being made on the task database.
...as seen inside George's Twat.
Update:
The Future of Duke Nukem 3D Graphics
Plagman, the same dude that's awesome enough to lend us a file mirror for use with Duke4.org, has authored a new renderer for EDuke32. His modern OpenGL graphics engine will be available to the public soon, and will feature the following:
- Static and dynamic lights with a fully per-pixel lighting model
- Advanced parallax mapping
- Dynamic shadows
- Real-time reflections with per-pixel perturbation
- Hardware skinning for models
The renderer is not based on Polymost, and the minimum hardware requirement is a card which supports shader model 3; Polymost will still be available for systems which can't run the new renderer adequately. The source for this news item is reachable at this link. Click below for more screenshots:
[ Read the rest... ]