Yesterday, rumors began to surface that 3D Realms shut down. According to Shacknews, the rumor has been confirmed, and the closure has been attributed to funding issues.
3D Realms opened in 1987, and was responsible for the entire Duke Nukem series. First announced in 1997, when 3D Realms bought the rights to use the Quake II Engine, Duke Nukem Forever has been in development for 12 years.
Originally the game was intended to be released in 1998, however, 3D Realms opted to move over to the Unreal Engine. This was the first of many serious delays the game faced, and ultimately lead towards what is arguably the worst case of a game being stuck in development hell ever.
A later switch of the Physics Engine, as well as a conflict with Publishers Take-Two, were two more significant obstacles which dramatically slowed the development process.
Apogee Software has confirmed that the closure will not affect the development of the handheld Duke Nukem Trilogy. An Apogee representative told Shacknews that “Deep Silver and Apogee Software are not affected by the situation at 3D Realms,” and “Development on the (handheld) Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned.”
Joe Siegler of 3D Realms has also officially and publically confirmed that the closure is real, and posted this on the 3D Realms website.
“It’s not a marketing thing. It’s true. I have nothing further to say at this time.”
In our opinion, it is a relief that the Duke Nukem Forever saga is now over. After 12 years of hype, and coming from one of the most loved franchises of all time, expectations would have been gargantuan and it most probably would have disappointed.
As ZeroPunctuation’s Ben Crowshaw put it “I just hope that 3D Realms understands that if this game doesn’t turn out to be history’s greatest contribution to human culture and the cure for at least one type of cancer, I and every other reviewer on earth are going to saw its bollocks off.”
Discuss the end of Duke on the forums
