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Duke Nukem Versus Take Two?

Posted by simoniker on from the all-this-acrimony-over-bruce-campbell? dept.

TimeTrip writes "There's a new column at CNN which offers a great overview of the ongoing problems with the Duke Nukem franchise. The publisher (Take Two) has serious issues with the developer (3D Realms), and vice versa. There's also some good quotes in there, including: 'George Broussard, co-owner of 3D Realms, fired back later that day on the message boards of Shacknews, one of the larger gaming community and news sites, suggesting 'Take Two needs to STFU imo.'"

9 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. You go, George! by Tim_F · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Telling your publisher to "stfu imo" is a good way of impressing your fans with your business acumen and knowhow. Idiot.

  2. Bah, who cares anymore? by Ummagumma · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This 'game' (I use that term lightly - nothing has been seen of it since 2001, and even then it was just screenshots and a cheesy movie) is so over-hyped, over-due, and the expectations are so high, that 3DRealms cannot possible live up to the expectations. They'd do best to write it off, and start on thier next project. I, for one, am no longer looking forward to this game.

    --
    "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." - Thomas Jefferson
    1. Re:Bah, who cares anymore? by tycage · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The difference there, to me at least, is that Valve kept it's mouth shut about HL2 until it was ready to show to the public. Duke Nukem has been hyped for several years now with no actual product in sight. HL2 is due out later this year. Sure it might slip and end up being in the same boat, but it doesn't seem likely.

      According to the article 3dRealms has been at it for 5 years at this point. I'd think they should have something that was ready to show by now if it was likely they had anything.

    2. Re:Bah, who cares anymore? by Babbster · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The only reason Valve has kept Half-Life 2 quiet is because they learned their lesson with Team Fortress 2. They offered a feature list and showed screenshots of Team Fortress 2 right after they scooped up the Team Fortress team and nothing has happened since, causing many salivating TF fans like myself a lot of angst. Of course, I'd still buy a TF2 game in a heartbeat, where DNF doesn't interest me much at all (and never has).

  3. That's my point by Tim_F · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They don't make games. What has 3D Realms done since Shadow Warrior? Gotten rich off of Duke licenses, released the source for a few older games, and switched the engine that DNF will use from Quake 2 to Unreal Tournament. This game has been "in production" forever. 3D Realms no longer makes games.

  4. web boards? by vitaflo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    IMO, 3D Realms should probably be spending a little less time trolling message boards and more time working on the game. At this point, the game is the laughing stock of the industry. They really just keep embarassing themselves.

  5. Who Was Responsible For The Hype? by Babbster · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I ask because I've read that most developers [HAVE to] leave all the marketing to their publisher. Many of them cannot even release a screenshot without clearing it through the publisher's marketing department. It therefore makes me wonder if Take Two was the origin for the early hype factory of DNF and therefore should take responsibility now for whatever bad feelings are out there in the public about the game.

    Of course, the aforementioned public has to take responsibility, too. All it takes is an announcement of a game and one or two screenshots for some geeks to immediately declare that "This will be the best game ever!" followed immediately by putting up fan sites full of speculative information. I've seen people complaing about not seeing any game info for a LONG time, but of course if they got any they would complain once again: "Only three screenshots?? We need more than that!"

    3DRealms, since going through all the DNF turmoil, has for the most part done the responsible thing: They've shut up about the game. When asked about a release date, they now say "When it's done" and they don't answer any more specific questions than that. If gamers would just let it lie, they might just end up with a pleasant surprise when the game comes out. And, if it doesn't, then maybe the stories about this game will end...which would be a very good thing, indeed.

  6. Re:Hype by Zathrus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Take2 has done marketing for DNF already though, based on statements from 3DRealms and DNF's availability. Any corporation also has to project revenues, and major releases like DNF are certainly going to figure into those revenues.

    Take2 was forced to write off $5.5M because DNF is still nowhere, and they couldn't even show anything at E3 (and I'd bet a good bit of the writeoff is due to that). A statement from Take2's CEO that they just "hope to have something" is a bit harsh, but you write off $5.5M and tell me you don't get pissy.

    George's response to this was completely out of line, and frankly shows far more about 3DRealm's lack of professionality than anything else to date -- including the 5 year+ development cycle.

  7. DNF v HL by superultra · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The press approach of 3drealms is obviously an attempt at swinging the pendulum from their (former) contempory Ion Storm/Romero. The thing is though is that all they've done, what with the press release of Half Life 2, is contrast themselves with Valve. Valve never really said anything in regards to Half Life 2, and any kind of hope for a sequel was only hinted at by rumormongers.

    The biggest problem facing DNF is that 3d games have advanced so damn much since Duke Nukem debuted, and I don't mean merely graphically. Obviously Half Life 2 will push that even further. Let's examine Medal of Honor. It's a fun, solid FPS and yet in implementation it doesn't really do anything we'd consider "new" (ala Tron 2.0, or Deus Ex). Still, MoH has so much more in it than anything Duke Nukem that anything even resembling the original DN will be nothing less than outdated. Unreal II, another example of everything done right but not great, showed us that good just isn't "good enough."

    Basically, this: Duke Nukem is so fundamentally one dimensioned as a game structure that 3drealms has completely missed the viability of selling their game. I played the crap out of the original DN, but I can't see myself playing DNF with the same character and similar storyline when I have stuff like HL2 and Deus Ex 2 sitting around.