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Duke Nukem Forever Drifts To 2005?

Thanks to GameSpot for their story discussing remarks made during today's Take Two financial conference call regarding Duke Nukem Forever's release date. Take Two CEO Jeffrey Lapin indicated that he "...had a recent conversation with [Duke Nukem Forever's] developer, and they expect the game to be completed sometime at the end of '04 or the beginning of '05." Naturally, the epic history of the game is then discussed, and the author points out: "Though Take Two spent a reported $12 million for the rights to publish Duke Nukem Forever, the game's development is being completely self-funded by 3D Realms, which still owns the franchise. The developer has never officially announced a release date, keeping with 3D head George Broussard's famous mantra that the release date is 'when it's done'."

23 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Let me be the first to say by dtfinch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    HAHAHAHAHA

    Maybe when it comes out I'll have a system powerful enough to run it.

  2. Holy Shit by Apreche · · Score: 3, Funny

    I read the headline and me and my roomate proceeded to laugh for 5 mintues nonstop. No joke.

    You should seriously put warnings on these things, I could have spit milk all over my keyboard.

    --
    The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
    1. Re:Holy Shit by excesspwr · · Score: 5, Funny

      You should seriously put warnings on these things, I could have spit milk all over my keyboard

      Seriously,,,,,, I did spray my keyboard with coke when I read that. The part that got me laughing though was when I read it drifted to 2005. In my head I heard "Ah,,,,,,,, It's been moved up!". I crack myself up. No one else,,,,,, I know,,,,, but I kill me. Luckily the coke only made my comma key stick.

  3. Hmm... by tayjo · · Score: 4, Funny

    They are really messing with my emotions

    --
    With your neck on my shoulders we could wreck civilization!
  4. There's two words I'm thinking about... by ivern76 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ware, and vapor. There must be some way to put these words together to describe DNF...yes, there must be.

  5. Apt Title by Canar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As it has undoubtedly been pointed out bazillions of times already, Duke Nukem Forever is more likely the expected wait time than the title of the product.

    Why couldn't they take the funding that's going into DNF and use that to resurrect Black Isle? That'd certainly be a better use of that money.

    It frustrates me to no end that Black Isle--who was producing many good games--went under, while 3D realms still has the cash to plug away at this hunk of vapourware.

    1. Re:Apt Title by Torgo's+Pizza · · Score: 3, Insightful
      I understand your frustration about Black Isle, but... what the hell are you talking about? Take Two and Interplay are two very, very different publishers. And what money are you talking about? The money that 3DRealms is putting into their own game? I'm assuming the $12 million publishing rights that Take Two paid. That kind of money doesn't go as far as it used to. That might buy you one or two titles tops, but Interplay has financial woes much larger than that.

      You may not like it, but it's 3DRealms money and they can do with it however they want. The fact that they still have money to still develop this title is amazing.

  6. Does Anyone Remember by Snowspinner · · Score: 3, Funny

    The first Monty Python computer game? Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time, I think it was. The object of the game was to get to the actual game, and you had to suffer through Pythonesque inconvenience to do so.

    Yeah. It's less funny after 6 years of DNF.

  7. The Last Ninja 4 by Per+Wigren · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This sounds just like the game I've been waiting for since the end of the 80s: The Last Ninja 4.. First releasedate was sometime in 2000, then the releasedate has drifted about half a year every 6 months... It was supposed to be released for the Game Cube Q4 2003, but I haven't heard a single word about it for a long time now...
    SimonSays still says "September 2003" for the X-Box version but no more news there... Amazon says February 2004...
    The story continues... ;)

    --
    My other account has a 3-digit UID.
  8. Re:E gad by MachDelta · · Score: 3, Interesting

    All I ever heard about was the one engine switch from Quake II to Unreal.
    I dunno if they're still using the Unreal/UT era engine (v436) though, or if they've upgraded to the (Unreal) Warfare series (v2227+). I guess it's possible they're pulling a Half-Life, and taking an old, but licensed engine, and slapping new features on it as they go. That might explain the delay, even if it doesn't excuse it.

  9. Running Gag by Kris_J · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Previously on Duke Nukem Forever: Penny Arcade, Atari 2600. The Atari 2000 version is actually a real cart.

    1. Re:Running Gag by forged · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Check out the date on that PA strip from over 4 years ago !

      DNF jokes are so passe, they're just not funny anymore...

  10. It's either... by Andy+Smith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... an overly-obsessive commitment to quality or it's sheer wanton incompetence.

    Either way, the trouble with DNF's bloated development time is that it can now never be good enough. The longer people wait (under the promise of "we'll release it when it's perfect") the higher their expectations will be. Games, films, albums, etc have an upper limit to how good they can be. People's expectations can go much, much higher. I fear that 3DR are setting themselves up to have a turkey with this game, irrespective of how good it actually is.

    I wonder if a possible film tie-in has anything to do with DNF's delays? If there's a film in the works then it would help both the film and the game if they come out at around the same time. Maybe the game's delays are due to the (unannounced and purely speculative) film's delays? Considering the antiquity of the game's engine and the outdated character, I'm sure 3DR would appreciate the guaranteed mass-market sales that a big summer action movie tie-in could generate.

    1. Re:It's either... by Firehawke · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They've changed engines two or three times now, which is a sure sign of problems-- without going through a huge redesign session, they'd be working with specs geared to an older engine. Sure, you can up the polycount and detail, but there are things inherent to the engine itself that probably won't have been taken into account in the upgrade.

      I expect the game won't be all it's been hyped to be, but then, that's a given considering how long this has been hyped. Even Max Payne finally made it to release. DNF.. is going to be THE legend in terms of either vaporware or turkey software depending on if they EVER release it.

  11. Yes, it could be worse... by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Funny

    How long until we get a Macintosh version? :P

    1. Re:Yes, it could be worse... by Gleng · · Score: 4, Funny

      I guess you'll get about 10 minutes to play it before the heat death of the universe.

      --
      "Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
  12. game development by ghettoreb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    when your game comes out later than Longhorn, you know you've been taking too long

    Doom3, Half-Life2, now DNF are three games that have either taken a *long* time to get to market or have ran over timelines. It seems like it would make sense for any future large-scale game development project to hire more developers than they would in the past, because as these upcoming games show all too clear: game development is unpredictable and time-consuming.

    1. Re:game development by kreinsch · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you read Fred Brooks' work, you'll see that adding software developers to a project often just makes it later...

  13. And the cleaning lady's a hologram... by Andy+Smith · · Score: 4, Funny
    The developer has never officially announced a release date, keeping with 3D head George Broussard's famous mantra that the release date is 'when it's done'.
    That must be the ultimate status symbol for a tech company, being run by a 3D head.
  14. At 3D realms HQ... by Channard · · Score: 5, Funny
    George Broussard: 'Hey, guys.. that Doom 3 engine is looking pretty cool. How about we... '

    ALL: 'Noooooo!'

  15. Gee I wonder why its called Forever by mnmn · · Score: 3, Funny

    It will probably be released after the next superman series, and after the last episode of Santa Barbera.

    --
    "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
  16. Delay will be worth it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Rememeber the infinite delays for Daikatana, but how awesome that game was?

    Maybe the delay is so they can work on the "Duke wants to make you his bitch" marketing campaign.

  17. 3DR and DNF by Reverend+Raven · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would figure, given the nature of PC Games to be little more than slap-dash buggy pieces of doodoo for the last few years that more of you /.ers would support 3DR and their quest to make an awesome game.

    Too much hype for this game you say? Well that's hard to believe...especially since 3D Realms hasn't publically said anything about it since 2001. This isn't Daikatana with full page ads in PC Gamer...or Derek Smart posting to every messageboard/IRC channel. This isn't even publisher funded (otherwise I'm sure they would have forced 3DR to release years ago). 3DR is spending all of their own cash (yes kids, Duke Nukem is a profitable franchise!) to make what they hope to be a kick-ass game. So if it bombs it's on no one's head but their own.

    Duke3D was released in 1996, and the work on DNF started late 1998. Yeah they've switched engines and yeah according to Georgie B (check the 3drealms.com forums, to lazy to link) by their own accord DNF is "very late". But as another poster said..no game before or since has had the attitude and atmosphere that Duke3D did (even if they borrowed a lot of the Dukeisms from the Evil Dead flicks).

    Duke (3D and the franchise itself) has made a LOT of money..aside from the money Duke3D made for the PC version..there were console versions..then console exclusive games..not to mention the action figures, statues, et al. So this isn't like reviving a dead franchise. When DNF is released chances are it will sell many copies...if not only from the "Holy Shit it's done!" factor..but it's Duke Nukem. As one of the mascots of PC gaming everybody knows who Duke is...or they've atleast heard of him.

    Plus console ports, expansions, etc....yeah, it'll end up in the black.

    People (and by people I mean the gaming press and gamers alike) are pissed 'cause 3DR won't release screenshots every third day or suck PC Gamers dick to get a cover story or what have you. So they want the title to fail even though no one's seen the game since 2001. To me this is a sign that 3DR actually...*gasp!* gives a rat's ass about the quality of their game and they want the best piece of code possible, and they don't want to spoil all the neat things for the audience by releasing movies and daily screen shots. For this 3DR should be commended, not condemned.

    Alls I want to know is..when it's finally released and all is said and done...how much will production have run? I gotta figure it's atleast $30 million by now. But I'll gladly pay my $50 to see what it's like.

    --

    --Reverend Raven
    Desperate days demand dire deeds.