Splinter Cell Blacklist co-op modes partially detailed
FIFA 14 on PC won't use Ignite engine
Ace Attorney Trilogy coming to iOS next week
Far Cry 3 editor jazzed up with Blood Dragon shinies
Epic Mickey 2 for Vita coming June 18
No $30M Offer for Duke Nukem IP, Says 3D Realms
by Chris Faylor, May 16, 2009 3:21pm PDTFollowing the sudden shut down of Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms last week, rumors began to circulate that the studio had opted to close instead of selling the overall Duke Nukem property to publishing partner Take-Two for some $30 million.
Now, 3D Realms co-founder Scott Miller has outright denied those rumors, telling Shacknews that the studio "would have taken this offer without hesitation" if it meant finishing DNF, indicating that the reality is "Not. Even. Close." to the rumors.
Responding to one reader that claimed they would have "sold the IP in a heart beat and created a new IP with that 30 million," Miller said "Hell, I would have also!"
Another rumor, this one claiming that Take-Two offered to sell 3D Realms the Duke Nukem Forever publishing rights for $30 million, has thus far gone unaddressed.
As it stands now, the fate of the notoriously long-in-development sequel Duke Nukem Forever is unclear. Take-Two, which paid Infogrames $12 million for the DNF publishing rights in 2000, has sued the remains of 3D Realms, claiming that it is owed "millions of dollars" as 3D Realms did not deliver the anticipated game.
However, 3D Realms "didn't get a penny of that [$12 million]," according to Miller. "This, along with so much else, is 100% spin, being eaten up by those who have no clue whatsoever."
As of June 2006, 3D Realms had self-funded "99.999% of the game (aside from a very, very small advance from GT Interactive, years ago, before Take 2 bought the game from them)," president George Broussard said at the time.
After 3D Realms shut down, Take-Two issued a statement that confirmed it had not been providing the studio with "ongoing funds for development of the title."
Take-Two and 3D Realms forged a second agreement regarding Duke Nukem Forever in 2007, claims the recent lawsuit, though details have yet to be made public and could very well be key to determining the outcome of the pending legal action.
Comments
They intended to design the game, and probably got sort of far. Then other games came out, that would have kicked the crap out of it. Instead of starting over, they started surfing the net, squandering investor money while receiving a paycheck. This ass clowns should be investigated. Duke Nukem is dead. Thank God.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 25 replies.
What did 3DRealms get by forever signing away exclusive publishing rights?
Chalk it up to hubris, which seems to run in the blood of greying devs left over from the shareware era. This is also about the end of doomed economic assumptions, in gaming just as in banking, real estate and autos. The future's looking a lot leaner.
And along those lines... Maybe DNF would have been finished if the project had been outsourced to a competent foreign dev team? Anybody can model and animate a neckless right wing bozo and run him through a series of cliched plot twists in levels themed "desert," "casino," "oil refinery," etc.
Jesus, guys in Zubaz sitting in the Ukraine can do it. Why couldn't you, Miller?
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 9 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 11 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 7 replies.
It is all kind of funny, I would of loved to play the game ...
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 9 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
Why are "Come Get Some" and "Hail to the King, Baby!" registred trademarks?
Why has a post on 3DR forums, saying these trademarks will be used for DNF based games, been deleted (I think it was this one: http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showthread.php?t=35703)?
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
we need a damn timeline on a whiteboard or something.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 7 replies.
when this game comes out and it will be crappy i'd be laughing
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 8 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 7 replies.
The lawsuit by Take 2 was very hastily completed, if Take 2 knew that 3D Realms needed money to finish the game or else they would have to shut down, which is what likely happened when George brought the game over to Take 2, they probably didn't care then, but with so much net hype surrounding the game now they want to claim whatever is left to finish it off. They must have known that they could have been done by November 2009, and were aiming for an April 2010 release, therefore because they know how close it is to completion, they don't want the assets going to waste, and think they may be able to claim them through the injunction. It reeks of business evilness, but its probably cheaper to do this than give 3D Realms the cash or to purchase the IP, especially given that it seems that they were willing to sell it.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 13 replies.
Cmawn, leak the game and sdk and the community can pick up the rest, even if it takes another 10 years.
More to the point the OLD DNF 2002? What happened to that game? This game has had so many revisions they should release the scrapped versions to the public. TBH the last one with the cow eating giant worm looked EPIC.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
This is a good example for new gaming devs in the future to look back and avoid.
Lots of speculation by people who haven't seen the contracts. I could see this going either way.
I hope 3dR sorts this out quickly.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
these guys are up there with the daikatana team and the ultima 9 team.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 5 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
You must be logged in to post.