Update: The teaser trailer has been released. Check it out now!
Prepare to hail to the king, baby. George Broussard of 3D Realms has confirmed on his company's official forums that a teaser trailer for the long (long, long) awaited Duke Nukem Forever will be released tomorrow around noon Central time. (Update: Now released!) Read more »
Little has been heard about the legendary Duke Nukem Forever recently, but Duke series developer 3D Realms does want to bring its classic 1996 shooter Duke Nukem 3D to Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade. News of the studio's desire to develop the port came in our very own chat comments from 3D Realms' George Broussard, who said the studio could develop a Live Arcade version of the game if Microsoft is interested. "Truth be told, we've talked to Microsoft about it and have some people that would port it," he wrote. "Just waiting on the good word from Microsoft to continue." This wouldn't be the first time the series has made it to consoles. Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and Game Boys Advance and Color have all hosted Duke. Broussard confirmed the accuracy of his post to Shacknews, but declined to comment further.
Read more »In what 3D Realms co-founder Scott Miller described as a "sucker punch", the Duke Nukem series developer has come under fire from the Entertainment Software Rating Board due to the use of outdated ESRB imagery on its official website. Last week, the developer received a letter from the ESRB, which it forwarded to Shacknews, listing over 30 instances of its website violating the ESRB's Terms and Conditions Agreement. Most of the violations stemmed from 3D Realms' use of "old pixilated" rating icons and the lack of content descriptors, such as "Blood" and "Nudity." Steps to obtain the proper rating icons and content labels were not provided, though the letter contained contact information for an ESRB representative. The ESRB specified that 3D Realms had only 10 days to comply before facing penalties. Actions available to the ESRB, as described in the letter, depend on the severity and the frequency of the infractions, but can range from mere warnings and the "temporary suspension of all ESRB rating services for any other of [the] company's products" to fines of $10,000 for repeat infractions. Miller expressed disappointment in the heavy-handed manner with which the ESRB approached his studio. "I think they came off like a school yard bully, rather than an industry partner," he told Shacknews. "Why all the threats right off the bat? If the ESRB people know what was being said about them in underground channels, so to speak, they'd see that their antics have caused them much loss of faith as an industry leader." These developments follow what seem to be renewed efforts on the part of the ESRB in governing content on video game-related websites. The ratings boards recently demanded gaming sites remove a trailer for Digital Extremes' Dark Sector, which publisher D3 claimed the ESRB had described as containing "excessive or offensive content." "The role of ESRB, as the industry's self-regulatory body, is to ensure that consumers have easy access to reliable information about the games they consider buying for their families, and that games are marketed appropriately and responsibly," said ESRB president Patricia Vance in a statement released to Shacknews. Vance referred to the ESRB's Advertising Review Council, which seeks to "monitor marketing practices of companies publishing games carrying an ESRB rating" and ensure that the organization's ratings display guidelines are followed. "The Federal Trade Commission has repeatedly confirmed that ARC marketing guidelines are being actively enforced and that the industry is now almost universally compliant with them," Vance continued. In response to inquiries as to whether the ESRB has recently taken a more stringent stance regarding online display of materials from ESRB-rated games, Vance noted, "ARC notices that are sent to publishers are merely a reflection of ESRB fulfilling its obligations to the industry to enforce the guidelines it has adopted."
Read more »Formed only this past January, Recoil Games wasted no time in establishing a working relationship with 3D Realms and beginning work on its upcoming first person shooter, Earth No More, which is slated to hit PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in 2009. Founded and directed by Remedy Entertainment co-founder and ex-managing director Samuli Syvahuoko, who previously worked on Remedy's Max Payne alongside 3D Realms, the new studio marks Syvahuoko's return to PC and console development after more than half a decade in mobile technology and games. Shack: Can you tell us a bit about your history of Recoil Games? What brought you back to console and PC development after spending six years specializing in mobile games and technology at Fathammer?
3D Realms' latest title is a sci-fi themed FPS named Earth No More, company co-founder Scott Miller has confirmed to Shacknews. Developed by the recently formed Recoil Games and powered by Epic's Unreal Engine 3, the game will arrive on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in 2009. Initial details on Earth No More surfaced in the latest issue of Game Informer, which is set to hit stores and subscribers later this week. Beginning in a small, quarantined New England town, Earth No More's antagonist comes not from space, but from nature. As a result of mankind's constant pollution of and experimentation with the environment, a growth of deadly red vines and mutating spores have overtaken the world, perverting whatever they encounter. When reached for comment, Miller told Shacknews that the Game Informer piece represents the company's official announcement of Earth No More and contains all the details that can be shared at the moment. "This game is part of our new push to work with more independent studios to co-create original IP," Miller explained to Shacknews. "More announcements along these lines should be expected." 3D Realms has three other projects in development, with a planned total of eight when the studio is at full capacity. Earth No More will include online co-op play, deathmatch, as well as the option for gamers to assume the role of an enemy and fight against other players."We're going to design almost every weapon in the game to where it's going to have a sort of collaborative mode to it," said Miller. "One gun called the Linker works like a reverse proton pack from Ghostbusters." To separate Earth No More from the number of solitary first-person shooters on the market, main character Will Forsyth will team with four other characters, each with their own unique back stories and motivations. Throughout the game, players will be able to converse with the other characters with a conversation system said to compare to that of Bioware's upcoming Xbox 360 RPG Mass Effect. According to the article, a small portion of which is posted on 3D Realms' official website, "the development team is specifically moving away from what they call the 'lone hero,' while also avoiding a squad-based direction." "The good guys aren't the only ones who can team up, however. Enemies are being designed to complement each other's skills as well," the article continues. "The team is intricately analyzing how group dynamics work in movies like the Alien, The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and 28 Days Later, hoping to emulate that kind of tension in game form."
Read more »There's an interview with Raphael Van Lierop on Gamasutra, asking 3D Realms' new Vancouver-based creative director about his position and the company. One thing he notes, "I can say that we have a big announcement coming in the next four weeks, and I'm not sure, but I believe we have another major announcement coming in the next four to six months... while I can't say exactly what these are, are they about Duke Nukem Forever? No."
Read more »Futuremark's YouGamers website has been updated with a Q&A with Scott Miller of 3D Realms. Miller is asked about his company's history, producing games, and of course the never ending development of Duke Nukem Forever.
Read more »Gamasutra's JobSeeker page has a new entry for 3D Realms, as the Duke Nukem Forever developer is looking for engineers to join the team. There are senior and junior programming positions to be filled.
Read more »GeorgeB dropped by to let us know that 3D Realms is once again hiring for Duke Nukem Forever. Gamasutra's JobSeeker site notes an opening for an environment artist as well as a programmer while the 3D Realms Get Hired page also mentions the need for another level designer.
Read more »Gamasutra has a comprehensive interview with 3D Realms' Scott Miller, speaking on a broad range of topics relating to modern game development. Miller touches on 3D Realms' unique practice of partnering with smaller studios for IP creation, why he's not on board with Steam and episodic content, the importance of game-specific IP, and why developing for consoles is important these days. Despite his misgivings about Steam, Miller does see digital delivery as a crucial upcoming trend both on PC and consoles.
IÂ’d love to see Steam spin off as their own company. That would be a smart move. That removes the conflict of interest issue and it would give Steam focus as a separate company. Since theyÂ’re buried in Valve, if Valve doesnÂ’t do well for a game or two, Steam will get cut before their internal game development. They have to consider Steam secondary. I donÂ’t know why they hang on to Steam as an internal thing. TheyÂ’d probably rule the game industry if they did. A truly independent company is going to come along, and I know of a couple of start-ups. I think one of these companies will emerge as the product leader and they should be able to take SteamÂ’s spot. My overall impression is that digital distribution is definitely going to be a huge force in the future. IÂ’ve said for quite a while that the next generation consoles will have this built in from the start. Day one releases will be available online. I think brick and mortar places will lose a lot of business this way. Microsoft and Sony have to be saying “if we cut out the retailers, we get a bigger piece of the pie.” ThereÂ’s no issue with it, you just need to get people bigger hard drives. Digital delivery is going to be a key part of console revenue.Read more »
There's a Q&A with Scott Miller on FiringSquad this morning, as JCal asks the 3D Realms CEO about his plans to work with more external developers on new IP.
Read more »In this recent post on his Game Matters blog, 3D Realms CEO Scott Miller notes that Prey has become a big success for 3DR and Human Head Studios. Within the first two months of release, the game has sold a milion copies worldwide with Miller clarifying that the figure represents actual sell-through to customers, and not just to stores. Miller also notes his appearance on a recent Next-Generation podcast, and mentions that 3D Realms will be expanding its strategy of IP creation and funding/guiding external projects. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.
Anyway, we are often contacted by talented, experienced independent studios looking to partner with us as we've done with past studios. It has become apparent to many studios that partnering with us allows them to create an original game, and reap far more of the rewards and benefits, by getting a better overall deal, and also sharing in the ownership of the IP -- the real Holy Grail in this industry. Id went on to become an industry super star. Remedy has achieved that status, and Human Head is right at that level, too, with publishers knocking down their doors to sign them after Prey's release. So, going forward, 3D Realms will become a studio polygamist, teaming up with more than one studio, working on perhaps 4-6 external projects simultaneously, creating new IPs and hopefully helping more and more deserving, talented independent studios achieve financial independence, and the ability to call their their own creative shots in the future. I am hiring one or two additional IP Creative Directors to assist me in the management of these games. We've already been contacted by numerous highly qualified independent studios, and more are welcome to contact me. In a way, we're going back to our roots. Fun times ahead!Read more »
Last week saw two major developments in the world of digital distribution of PC games. First, we got an answer to one question that is frequently asked during discussions of the technology, "What happens when one of these services goes down?" Triton, the digital distribution service hosting Human Head's Prey as well as numerous other titles, shut down as its parent company Digital Interactive Streams folded. At that point, many people who purchased the game through Triton had as yet been unable to even play it, leaving many to wonder how they would be compensated. Following a promise from a Triton employee that some kind of patch was forthcoming, producer 3D Realms and publisher 2K Games made the surprising announcement that every person who had purchased Prey via Triton would be receiving a boxed copy of the game at no additional cost and with no further action required.
2K Games' and 3D Realms' solution to the problem is an admirable and straightforward one, but it is worth noting that it came from the game's publisher, not from Triton itself. A genuine concern remains as to what will happen when particular services cease to exist. If this becomes a common trend, it is probably safe to say that publishers will not be particularly interested in taking the risk of sending out thousands of free packaged games after signing with a digital distribution service.
The other big surprise last week was that publisher Activision pledged support for Valve's Steam download 
service with four of its games, including three Call of Duty titles as well as Neversoft's Western shooter GUN. After gaining a reputation for attracting smaller developers using Steam as a primary or at least major distribution channel for their games, last week's announcement saw a major publisher sign on. This in itself is not remarkable; Activision games have already been available through other download services, and publishers such as Electronic Arts and Sega have made a number of their PC games available for purchase and download through their own online storefronts. More significant is the continually increasing support for Steam, now from an extremely broad chunk of the gaming spectrum.
Steam also demonstrated yet another potential niche to fill. Double Fine Productions' critically acclaimed but modestly selling platform adventure Psychonauts was added to the service courtesy of publisher Majesco, which also added a few other titles. The independently developed but publisher-funded Psychonauts falls in between publisher-owned properties such as Activision's and completely indie productions such as Introversion's Darwinia and DEFCON. Long has the industry lacked any kind of "second wind" mechanism for games that performed poorly at retail but generated increased buzz after release. In the film industry, VHS and, to an even greater degree, DVD retail sales have offered such an opportunity to capture newly developed momentum without an impractical and almost surely unprofitable second theatrical release. DVD releases allow studios to refocus marketing after having gained a better idea of the product's appropriate audience. The situation is not directly comparable to games, for a variety of obvious reasons, but it is certainly analagous.
One disadvantage, a disadvantage of digital distribution in general, is the lack of added value over the original retail release. In almost every case, publishers do not sell physical components alongside digitally distributed games, and on top of that, prices are not necessarily lower than they would be in a retail setting. Value comes from factors such as convenience, the knowledge that less money for the publisher or developer is intercepted by the combination of distributor and retailer middlemen, and, in the case of these "second wind" games, simply the ability to find a game that may be nearly nonexistent at retail. There are also benefits such as streamlined or automatic patching as well as a more direct line of communication and content between developers and gamers. For multiplayer games, services like Steam allow a centralized friends list. It remains to be seen if publishers will actually take advantage of the potential opportunities with "rereleasing" a game online, beyond simply making it available. Lower overhead and quicker turnaround times may mean publishers feel able to allocate new marketing funds for highly targeted online advertising, but many may instead come to the conclusion that further marketing is superfluous since any new sales are essentially "free."
What is interesting to consider now is whether there is room for anyone else. Steam has amassed a gaming library that, at this stage, lacks in sheer number of available titles compared to a retail location, but in many ways is surpassing the breadth of variety found in a gaming speciality shop such as GameStop. In addition to all of Valve's first party products, Steam has casual games such as Bejeweled and Zuma, numerous titles from independent developers ranging from high concept multiplayer games to smaller scale arcade-like games, and the aforementioned games from third party publishers.
There are plenty of download "portals" that have been accessible to gamers for years, and as noted some publishers and developers have their own exclusive download services, but most of them are fairly limited either to almost entirely casual games, or to games from a single company. In the last couple of years, other more fully featured services have entered the scene. Stardock's TotalGaming.net, nee The Drengin Network, offers the company's own products as well as a selection of third party strategy, adventure, and action games. Manifesto Games, formed last year by veteran designer Greg Costikyan and former Computer Gaming World editor Dr. Johnny Wilson, has the explicit goal of promoting innovative and interesting PC gaming by serving as something of a complete portal for the independent development scene. Costikyan has even given indication that at some point Manifesto would like to actually provide funding for certain titles, something that does not appear to be part of the stated business plan for its competitors.
Again, though, the question remains: is there much room for anyone besides Steam? Beyond that, how practical would such a scenario be? For many gamers, one of the biggest advantages of digital distribution is convenience and being able to deal with all major game download purchases from a single application. Relying on a multitude of 
proprietary software and download sites would not be a particularly appealing notion for most people, and would make things all the more complicated when reformatting one's hard drive or switching to a new PC. There are some benefits to a single service being the de facto go-to point for downloadable games. If, for example, Steam manages to achieve some kind of critical mass--and Activision signing on may be an indication that mainstream success is on the way--it could become an even better platform for smaller developers who need to capture only a small amount of the market share that is necessary for a large scale, full budget game to be successful. We have already seen examples of this with Steam. Various games rereleased on Valve's service have seen success that is undeniably significantly improved from their original releases, be it online or in retail stores. The service's existing install base alone is a huge boon for developers, and the resulting amount of concentrated word of mouth that results among online gaming communities is likely greater than what could be achieved even if simultaneously releasing on several competing services.
Of course, there are always downsides to any one product or service holding heavy domination over the market. As competition decreases, so does competitive pricing, and many gamers have already expressed frustration with downloadable game pricing not offering enough of a savings, and in some cases no savings, over retail purchases. There's also the issue of the problems that would occur if the dominant service suffered widespread technical difficulties or downtime. Such risks would have even more impact if digital distribution ever manages to capture a hefty chunk of the game sales market. For that matter, until it does that, certain other factors such as pricing are unlikely to improve. Particularly in the case of games that have a retail release as well as an online release, retailers and publishers handling brick and mortar deals fight tooth and nail to ensure that download services do not undercut retail stores. In the industry's current state, operators of download services have little leverage against such demands.
One factor that may provide a boost to digital distribution is the advent of episodic gaming, something that in many cases not conducive to retail sales. The first installments of Valve's Half-Life 2 episodes and Ritual's SiN Episodes have each received a retail launch simultaneously with their online releases, but those games are better described as simply shorter and more affordable versions of full length games. They do not seem to have the regular release schedule and extremely short format one would expect from an "episode." Currently, Telltale Games is about to pursue a business model that is more genuinely episodic. Each of the company's upcoming Sam & Max episodes will run only a few hours in length but starting with the second episode will be delivered on a monthly basis for under $10 each. The games will be compiled into a retail package after all six episodes of the first season are complete, but will not be sold in stores individually. Appropriately, they are being initially distributed through the GameTap service, which operates on a subscription basis rather than a price-per-game basis. (A few weeks later, Sam & Max will be downloadable straight from Telltale.) GameTap takes a different approach than Steam and other similar services, giving gamers who pay its monthly fee access to its entire library of games as long as they remain members. The effectiveness of Telltale's development strategy and GameTap's distribution strategy remains to be seen, but they have some key differences from other digital distribution services and games sold over them, and they have certain advantages that are simply not possible with traditional retail.
Currently, the landscape of digital distribution is something like a gold rush. It's new and exciting, there's clearly money to be made, there are a lot of people trying to run in and make it, and they all have different ideas on how to do so. The internet has proven to be remarkably good at creating situations like that, but not necessarily quite as good at sustaining them in a healthy, useful, and commercial way. Still, despite the caveats, a flourishing digital distribution scene could be just what the PC gaming industry needs to keep independent developers strong and to mitigate financial risk in order to allow for greater creative risk. Then again, it may become dominated by large publishers, and marketing dollars will take over. You just never know in this industry.
Nice to see DOOM hit Xbox Live Arcade, certainly wasn't expecting that. That game will never get old. Now we need Duke Nukem 3D on there. 3D Realms, make it so. Also on FileShack
"well duh, it has strippers, that strip for you. does any other FPS have that :) and maybe ..."
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