3DRealms closing doors

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frag.machine
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3DRealms closing doors

Post by frag.machine »

http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board. ... adid=98142

TBH, I think that's the best thing could happen to the Duke Nukem IP.
Now someone *COUGH*id*COUGH* can buy the franchise and slap it into a last generation engine *COUGH*Rage*COUGH*.
DN needs a new home, id needs a winning franchise to shine like in the old times again.
I know FrikaC made a cgi-bin version of the quakec interpreter once and wrote part of his website in QuakeC :) (LordHavoc)
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Post by scar3crow »

I disagree on the simple virtue of I do not know the quality of the present id staff, I was not a fan of Doom3's game or level design all in all, and it was lacking in personality. Great level design and thorough personality is a key trait for a good Duke game.

Those who say it should be picked up by the likes of Valve or such just disgust me. Besides, 2K still holds the publishing rights to DNF. Honestly for Duke, I turn to the community at duke4.net, or 3dRealms either pulling a prank, or returning, not to another established studio of the modern design philosophy, that of games as a passive medium.
...and all around me was the chaos of battle and the reek of running blood.... and for the first time in my life I knew true happiness.
MauveBib
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Post by MauveBib »

Hopefully they'll just let it die. It's become too much of a joke to ever be playable. It's one of those jokes that's been running so long it's not even funny any more.
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Post by Megazoid »

My initial thought was that George Broussard was working his marketing black magic, and this was simply a sign that the predicted Duke Nukem Forever 6 month hype drive had started. Noncommittal statements from Take Two & Deep Silver, and no official version of what happened from George or Scott, still has my b*llshit-ometer tweaking slightly. So far, all that has been released are brief statements from (former?) employees of 3Drealms. Also the timing it a little suspect with E3 around the corner, and a game that is by all accounts in crunch stage.

Another thought I had was that this was perhaps an exercise in clearing away a lot of dead wood from a company that was hopelessly unproductive. Including perhaps removing the lackadaisical Broussard himself. Scott Miller could then take control of the Duke IP and DNF.

Time will tell. If the story turns out to be true in the next week or so, I got to say Broussard really is one stupid mother****er lol. To mismanage something on this kind of level takes talent.
scar3crow
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Post by scar3crow »

I saw your comment regarding such on the 3dR thread... I've been lurking it since all this started.

I sit the fence though, I accept that they're dead and gone, that DNF is no more, that 3dR is no more. But if they show up at E3 with a completed game, already in the process of replication, I will still not be surprised at all. It just... seems like them.
...and all around me was the chaos of battle and the reek of running blood.... and for the first time in my life I knew true happiness.
mh
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Post by mh »

Colour me "not surprised". Sometimes one just has to bite the bullet and get some product out there, even if it's not 100% perfect or in tune with one's original vision. ID know this - look at Quakes I and II, for example.

I shudder to think at how much money went into DNF over the years. Running a company out of one's own back pocket with no sustainable income aside from bargain bin repackagings is not financially long-term viable; it was inevitable that sooner or later the plug would have been pulled.

It's a shame really. If DNF had been released in 1998, or even 2001, there would have been a pretty cool - if flawed - game out, enough people would have bought it on the strength of the franchise to keep things afloat, and 3DR would have been able to build on that foundation for a truly whup-ass follow-up.

Relentless pursuit of perfection may be admirable, but it doesn't pay the bills and in the end you run the risk of releasing zilch.

In the end I don't believe the "scam" conspriacy; unfortunately the story I'm buying is a sadder one - this game did exist, it was being actively developed with an intended release, but technology moved too fast, and rather than sticking to their original guns and accepting a result delivered on older tech, someone kept chopping and changing, like what happened with Daikatana but writ super-large and repeated multiple times over.
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Post by Urre »

Hm, I always got the impression Quake 2 was one of id's "perfect" games, in terms of how close to the original idea the end product ended up as.
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Post by Electro »

Urre stop trolling with your trash you crazy swede. You're just looking for a fight!

/me secretly likes Quake2 also.
...
/me runs away with Urre to a magical land with unicorns and midgets made of gold
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Post by CocoT »

I kinda liked Daikatana...

/me turns around and runs after Electro and Urre, singing songs praising good-hearted dragons and goblins.
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frag.machine
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Post by frag.machine »

There's some unofficial footage flying around the net (shows both ingame and editor animation/scene scripting work). Man, I'm really sorry they didn't finished it. I surely would like to play it regardless the graphics not being Crysis-like.
I know FrikaC made a cgi-bin version of the quakec interpreter once and wrote part of his website in QuakeC :) (LordHavoc)
scar3crow
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Post by scar3crow »

Graphics come and go, what looks great now will look like shit in 2 years time, trust me. Many games are a good example of this. Art design is the only thing that can carry a game visually through the years.

Don't forget that 3dR had revenue streams from Prey as well, and Max Payne, and they got some money selling the rights for the movie of that also.
...and all around me was the chaos of battle and the reek of running blood.... and for the first time in my life I knew true happiness.
mh
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Post by mh »

Urre wrote:Hm, I always got the impression Quake 2 was one of id's "perfect" games, in terms of how close to the original idea the end product ended up as.
True enough for the SP game I suppose, but the original retail version was completely missing the MP maps, which didn't arrive until the 3.12 patch (or thereabouts). Based on that I think it's fair to say it was released unfinished. :D
We had the power, we had the space, we had a sense of time and place
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scar3crow
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Post by scar3crow »

Based on the status of biggun.bsp I would say its unfinished...
...and all around me was the chaos of battle and the reek of running blood.... and for the first time in my life I knew true happiness.
FrikaC
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Post by FrikaC »

Also in the original release of Quake 2 you moved at 1 foot per hour in DM.
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Post by Megazoid »

scar3crow wrote:Don't forget that 3dR had revenue streams from Prey as well, and Max Payne, and they got some money selling the rights for the movie of that also.
Actually 3D Realms (aka Apogee Software Ltd) sold the Max Payne IP to Take-Two for $40 million way back in 2002 directly after the first Payne game. You could easily speculate 3D Realms have burnt through 100 million dollaaaars* dicking around on DNF. It makes me smile to see some of the fans suggesting we make donations to "save Duke" - f*ck that. George Broussard has blown it by becoming fixated on some sort of mythical video game perfection. I admire and loath him in equal measure.

*Edit : 7.5 millllion dollaaaars
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